Family Matters
by A. X. Zanier
Summary: The Invisible Man Altiverse Future Timeline Part of the Original A. S. Series
1. Chapter 1

The Invisible Man Altiverse  
  
Author: A. X. Zanier  
Title: Family Matters  
Rating: PG-13   
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or basic story ideas to "The Invisible Man." Any additional characters or ideas are mine.   
Timeline: 20 years in the future in the Original A. S. Series.   
Comments: This one bit me hard and I had to go with it. Originally posted at Yahoo! Groups IMFanfic April, 22 2001  
  
Thanks one again to Rebecca(WorkerCaste) for being a wonderful Beta/Editor for me.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Family Matters  
  
  
  
  
Today is my birthday.  
  
I know -- not that big a deal these days. But in this family, on this birthday, it's the biggest deal of all. I'm turning thirteen today, and it's become a tradition in this family that this is the birthday when we get to choose. I thought I knew what I was going to decide. Was sure, actually. Until last night. And now I'm not so sure.  
  
Now I'm a little scared.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alyx lay on the grass in the back yard panting, exhausted, and feeling no better for all the exertion she'd just put her body through. Gods, why did this have to happen? She closed her eyes, trying not to think about the absolute disaster that had occurred yesterday. She so wanted to blame herself, but knew she couldn't, knew it wasn't her fault, knew it was just parental guilt. Even if the kid did look nearly identical to her. On more than one occasion they had been mistaken for sisters. But no, Dani was most definitely not her sister. Right now, Alyx didn't even know if she was alive.  
  
Alyx tried and failed to keep a sob from escaping. She'd told that damn Johnson to let her do this mission, but no. It had to be Dani. She was younger, and just as capable. Alyx was too well known. Idiots. Dani was just as well known or they wouldn't have grabbed her.  
  
The whole thing had been nothing but a bloody trap.  
  
And Johnson had sent her right into it.  
  
The bastard.  
  
A shadow drifted across her awareness and she opened her eyes. The person standing over her surprised her a bit.  
  
"Dare, what are you doing home?" She leaned up on her elbows and wiped away the tears with one hand.  
  
"Well, I got this call from Amanda, who was quite sure her mother was at home wallowing in guilt and could probably use some company." He sat down next to her on the warm grass. "Was she right?"  
  
"Nope, not wallowing. Not yet anyway." She flopped back down. "I'm still in that 'shocked-but-angry' stage."  
  
"Ah, good. Then I can leave." He reached out to touch her.  
  
"If you need to, yeah," she said turning to look at him.  
  
He knew she was serious. "If they can't hold down the fort for a couple of days then why am I paying them?"  
  
"Pity?" Alyx managed with a smile.   
  
He chuckled; it was almost true. "So, what exactly happened?"  
  
"I don't know and, if they do, they're not telling. All I know was that she was on a mission to China and vanished. They think it was a trap. Her tracker was disabled," Alyx explained keeping her voice as calm as possible. "Johnson is an idiot."  
  
Darien moved, lying down on his stomach next to her. "What did he do this time?"  
  
"I told him the intel was screwy. Heck, so did Rose, but he was insistent that our 'hunches' did not constitute valid reasoning." The anger she felt leaked into her voice.  
  
"So, what are we going to do about it?" Darien asked her, moving closer. He was hoping to give her what comfort he could with his presence. He knew this had to be hard on her; Dani was her firstborn, after all.  
  
He hadn't met any of the kids from Alyx's first 'marriage' until they were all nearly adults. Well, except for the youngest, Rose, whom he had met briefly when she was about six and he and Hobbes had intervened in her kidnapping. He had a good relationship with all four of them now, though. They were family, after all.  
  
"Do? What can we do? Johnson has ordered me to stay out of it. I do still work for the dickhead, after all." Her fondness for her current superior was evident in her voice.  
  
"We can go get her," Darien said quietly.  
  
"Have you been drinking the girls' concoctions again?" Alyx was convinced he'd been gone a bit too long this time.  
  
"Why not? The kids'll help, I'm sure. This is their big sister we're talking about; you can't tell me they're not upset too," Darien said.  
  
"Of course they are, but..."  
  
He cut off her protest. "Let's at least look into it. I'll give Hobbes a call. Maybe he'd like to go on an adventure." Darien smiled. "Where are the short ones with attitude?"  
  
She focused inward for a moment. "The 'Duo of Doom' is upstairs doing homework, and your sequel is eavesdropping again." she sighed. "I thought I broke him of that habit."  
  
Darien laughed. "Sounds about right, just like me at that age."  
  
"Gods, don't tell me he's started stealing." She was smiling as she said this, teasing him.  
  
"'Course not. You'd never let him. Kinda hard to sneak something like that past a telepath." He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.  
  
"Oh, like you had no influence whatsoever." She'd always known he'd make a wonderful father. She'd been more than right. "Did he decide yet?"  
  
"Not officially. We both know he wants to," Darien said softly. "He thinks it's neat, still. He hasn't really had a chance to see the down-side of quicksilver yet." He got this odd look in his eyes.  
  
"What? Mr. Plot-and-Plan, I can see an idea percolating in that wee little mind of yours." Alyx reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder.  
  
"I think maybe he should get a taste of what it's really like," he answered.  
  
"You mean..."  
  
Darien nodded. "Why not? With his luck, we'll be in more danger than he will, and his full powers haven't kicked in yet, have they?"  
  
Alyx shook her head. "Soon though. Very soon."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
So I was eavesdropping. How else was I supposed to find out what was going on? I knew my mom was upset about something and that it involved Dani, but she wouldn't tell me what. I had called Rose -- she was always good for slipping me information I wasn't supposed to know -- and she told me pretty much what I had just overheard.  
  
I never really thought about how dangerous it could be. I mean, that was the point of our powers wasn't it? To be able to do those things for the Agency and get away with the job done and no damage to the good guys?  
  
You know, us: my Mom; my half-siblings Dani, Chris, Manda, and Rose; and someday, probably, me, Ari, and Zoe.  
  
For the first time I realized those scars on my mom weren't just reminders of an adventure she'd had but the remains of serious, life threatening injuries. Mom and Dad had risked their lives every time they'd gone to work. Mom still did. It could have been her and not Dani that was missing and, although Dani was my sister and all, and I was worried about her, it would have been so much worse if it had been Mom.  
  
I wandered out of my room to check on my sisters, who were doing their homework in our study. They had the most recent version of Cousin Jason's holographic display running, beta testing it for him. It was showing an intricate multidimensional model rotating slowly between them.  
  
They didn't even look up when I slouched into the room. (Yes, I've picked up some bad habits from my dad.)  
  
"Well, Brother dear..." Zoe began.  
  
"Have you come out of your mope yet..." Ari added  
  
"And made your decision?" Zoe finished.  
  
"Do you guys have any idea how annoying that is?" I moved over to the couch and sank into it.  
  
As one they looked at me and said, "Yes." Then they turned back to their work.  
  
Bad enough I had to have sisters, but I got stuck with identical twins who share the same brain. Sheesh. I watched them for a few minutes, trying to figure out how to have a serious conversation with the 'wonder twins'. They might be only eight years old, but they were far more intelligent and mature than their ages implied. Neither of them went to a regular school anymore; the teachers had given up on them, actually were frightened by them. So they instead had special tutors provided by the Agency. Then, of course, there was Cousin Jase, who gave them just about every new thing he came up with to use, abuse, and sometimes even improve. They held at least four joint patents that I knew of.  
  
I sighed. "I don't know anymore. What happened with Dani..." I trailed off as they both looked at me.  
  
"So you finally realized..." Ari began.  
  
"That it's not some game." Zoe added.  
  
"About bloody time." They said together.  
  
"You've being hanging around Claire too much," I complained.  
  
"Not me," Zoe said, hooking a thumb at her twin. "Just her. Can't help but pick it up though."  
  
I shook my head, thankful once again that I wasn't a twin.  
  
"Look, I'm trying to be serious here," I griped at them.  
  
"We know," Zoe said for both of them. They shut down the display and sat on the floor in front of me. "Talk."  
  
"I had..." I made sure to put emphasis on the word 'had', "decided to have Phase II done. Was going to wait till I turned sixteen and go straight into the Agency. Take classes in my spare time like Chris did. But now..." I shrugged.  
  
They looked at each other for a moment.  
  
"Not a bad plan," Ari said.  
  
"Actually showing some of that..." Zoe added.  
  
"Intelligence you supposedly inherited from Mom and Dad." Ari finished.  
  
They glanced at each other again.  
  
"Look, brother dear, you know it's not just fun and games. You have first-hand experience with the potential downside to quicksilver." Ari tipped her head to the side, as if listening to something only she could hear.  
  
"But that was the gland, not the same thing as us," I pointed out.  
  
Zoe took over. "Oh, really? And how often has Mom come home exhausted or upset because of something that happened? Just because she doesn't go quicksilver-mad doesn't mean it's any easier. It's harder for her, in fact. She doesn't have the option of having it removed like Dad did."  
  
"If the Phase II works, you will never be able to *not* quicksilver again," Ari added.  
  
I knew they were right, but I hadn't let myself think about it. I had been too busy focusing on what I considered the fun aspects of being able to quicksilver. I remember, just once, my dad going quicksilver-mad. I must have been five, maybe six years old, but I still remember it. Something like that you don't forget, no matter how young you were.  
  
  
// I looked up from my lofty construction -- a combination of blocks, tinker toys, and Lego's -- when I heard my dad cry out. He was leaning on the door frame with this look of utter pain and despair on his face. His eyes looked funny. Red streaks running through them.  
  
"What are you looking at?" He was nearly yelling, but I was sure I had done nothing wrong. Heck, he'd been helping me build until a few minutes ago. He had just gone to get some aspirin, or so he had said.  
  
"Mom!!" I shouted, then remembered she was out in the yard doing her exercises.  
  
"I don't think she's going to be much help to you," he growled at me. I actually began to feel afraid, and I was never afraid of my dad.  
  
I didn't like it. Not one little bit. I remembered something my mom had said, about the madness. She'd told me a few months ago, just in case, that if Dad were to ever start acting odd, eyes looking funny, his head hurting, that I was to go get her.  
  
He took a few steps towards me and I scrambled to my feet, backing away. I wondered if I could make it out back before he got to me.  
  
With an easy sweep of his hand, the beautiful building that had taken two days to construct was shattered. The pieces flew across the room to fall to the floor with a variety of sounds.  
  
"Look at this mess." He was waving a finger at me. "Guess you'll have to be punished now." He came after me then, the look on his face sending terror shooting through my veins.  
  
I ran.  
  
At first he didn't follow me. He just stood there, with several different emotions warring across his face. The hard, nasty one I didn't like won. I almost made it to the back door. Almost.  
  
He caught me by the back of my shirt and lifted me into the air. I tried to fight him, like how Mom had taught me, but I had no leverage, couldn't breathe.  
  
I tried to yell, to shout for my mom, but I had no air to shout with, no way for the words to get past my lips.  
  
So I did...something. Like shouting in my head, but just for my mom. I saw spots before my eyes. I wanted to breathe. Wanted air. Didn't want this person before me, who both was and wasn't my dad, to be doing this. I could feel the tears running down my cheeks, feel the terror running through me. When he raised his hand to hit me I squealed and shouted so loud it hurt, in my head.  
  
Then I heard my mom say, *I'm coming. Be brave.*  
  
Be brave? When this living, screaming horror who had been my dad was about to do...do.... I don't know what, but I wanted it to go away. The whole world was getting dark and spinning in a weird way. Like when you hang your head backwards off of one of those 'Spin and Pukes' at the playground.  
  
Then there was air and light. I wasn't hanging by my shirt collar any longer.  
  
"Darien!" Mom was really pissed.  
  
Dad dropped me then, but I didn't fall. Instead, I was lowered gently to the floor. I sat, coughing and panting, and watched. Watched my dad turn and go after my mom. Call her names I'm not supposed to say, even if it does make Mom laugh sometimes.  
  
She just looked at him with this sad smile and her eyes began to glow. My dad stopped cold, unable to move. She went to the locked cabinet, the one I wasn't allowed into. The one that had a small fridge inside, as well as lots of funny-shaped bottles. She tried to reach something on one of the higher shelves and couldn't. Her belly got in the way. She was going to have a baby in a few months.  
  
The items she wanted floated down to her. I always loved it when she did stuff like that. My mom was magic, or so I believed.  
  
Dad had started to move again and my mom spun around to look at him. She had one of those needle things in her hand. He hit her across the face, nearly knocking her to the floor. I jumped to my feet to go after my not-dad, but then I heard her in my head again.  
  
*Stay back, love.*  
  
It was hard, but I did it.  
  
He grabbed her by the throat and pulled her to her feet. He lifted her up off the ground so that her feet swung in the air, but she didn't fight him.  
  
"Do you really want to be like Jess?" she growled out, not having quite enough air to talk normally.  
  
My dad froze and began to shake in place, then let go of her and dropped to his knees, burying his face in her stomach.  
  
"Shh. We'll deal later. Hold still." She was running one hand through his hair, tears running down her face.  
  
I flinched when she stuck the needle in the back of his neck, but I think it scared me more when he fell asleep because of it. Mom held him and lowered him gently to the floor. She tossed the needle away and hiccuped. She was really crying now, and I went to her, figuring it was safe. The not-dad was gone right?  
  
"I warned them," she was saying. "I warned them, but would they listen to me?" She wiped the tears away. "Oh, no. I couldn't know, I just live with the man."  
  
"Mom?" She held me tight. "Is Dad coming back soon?"  
  
"Yes, love. I promise." //  
  
  
Dad had had the gland taken out two weeks later.  
  
Oh yeah, I knew the downside to quicksilver. Had heard stories about what happens when you overuse your powers -- the headaches, the collapse of your shields, the intrusion of other minds upon your own. My telepathic ability had been triggered that day, so by now I was quite adept in its use.  
  
For a while I'd thought I was better than everyone else, until Mom got tired of my eavesdropping on her and Dad and made me go a full day with no shields. I never want to go through that again. By the end of the day I wasn't sure who I was anymore. It took two days for me to recover, to find myself again. And I'm the lucky one; I don't retain the memories of others unless I want to. My mom can't get rid of them. She has hundreds, if not thousands of memories and experiences that are not her own.  
  
Yet somehow she never loses her sense of self. She once said it was because of Dad, that thanks to an incident early in their relationship, he became a bit of an anchor for her. A focus point when she felt lost. A stable point in her life of near-constant upheaval.  
  
"Hey, guys. Got a minute?"  
  
Speaking of my dad, he was standing in the doorway. Slouching, really, much like I had been not that long ago. "Sure," I answered.  
  
"Girls, go ready the guest room, please." He was watching them, waiting for the barrage even I knew was to come.  
  
"For who?" Ari asked.  
  
"Whom," Zoe corrected.  
  
"No. It's who." Ari turned on her twin.  
  
"It's wh..." Zoe was interrupted.  
  
"Girls." They stopped and looked at him. "Just get the room ready. We'll explain later."  
  
They looked up at him and nodded. As one they left the room, and as soon as they were out in the hall they returned to the argument. Girls are so weird.  
  
"Let's take a walk," Dad said to me, and I got to my feet with a nod.  
  
"Where's Mom?" I wanted to know she was okay.  
  
"In the shower. How long was she out there, anyway?" he asked, leading me down the stairs and out into the yard.  
  
I shrugged. "A couple of hours, I guess." He gestured for me to sit and I did on one of the patio chairs. "She seemed to need it."  
  
He nodded. "How much do you know?"  
  
There was no point in pretending I didn't know what he was talking about. Mom had caught me, after all. "Just that Dani is in trouble and no one really knows exactly what happened. Rose only gave me the general information."  
  
"Ah, so Rose is the leaky one this time. I thought she knew better." He was smiling as he said this, so I knew it wasn't that big of a deal.  
  
"Your mom is going to do a little digging to make sure this wasn't part of the plan, and if it's not, we're planning on going to get Dani ourselves." He was watching me carefully, waiting for my reaction. I made sure not to give him one.  
  
"We want you to come along. We think it's time you really saw what it's like to work for the Agency," he said.  
  
I just sat there in surprise. I hadn't overheard that! "You're kidding, right?"  
  
"Nope. You don't think we've forgotten what day today is, do you?"  
  
I shook my head. They never forgot.  
  
"You've never really seen your mother working. It's not like at home. The stuff she does here is just parlor tricks." He waved his hand. "Simple stuff she does out of habit."  
  
I nodded my head, as if in agreement, but in reality I wasn't quite sure what he was talking about. He couldn't mean that the way lights go on and off as she goes in and out of rooms, doors opening and closing, items fetching themselves for her, are tricks? Tricks? As far as we knew, the only people in the world who could really do stuff like that were members of this family. Mom, well Mom got the mother load of abilities, and she passed them on to all of us in one form or another.  
  
"How is cooking dinner from another room simple?" I asked him and he started laughing.  
  
"Ben, if she wanted to she could probably relocate the entire house with very little effort," he said. I realized he was serious. "You do remember that her abilities are not the same as yours, right?"  
  
"Yeah, I remember." You see, I'm a true telepath. I can hear other people's thoughts and, to a degree, allow them to hear mine. I also have some small talent as an empath. I don't really pick up emotions, not like Uncle Mike, but I usually get feelings along with the words. Mom is something different. We call her a telekinetic, telepath, and empath, but she's not. Her abilities can just be used that way. She can also short out the power in the house, create lightning, and control a computer with her mind. Possibly all at the same time. I had never really thought about what that meant, or how powerful the ability to manipulate just about any form of energy could be. And that's not even counting her ability to quicksilver.  
  
Now I was beginning to wonder about the things she might have done over the years.  
  
"Hey, guys," she said as she walked out to us. I still can't stand how she can sneak up on me. She moves so quietly that she's caught me doing quite a few things that I shouldn't have been. Good thing she's pretty cool for a mom.  
  
It took me a long time to figure out why my friends from school always wanted to hang out at my house, and when I did I was so embarrassed I hid in my room for days. How are you supposed to react when you find out your friends are begging for invites to your house so that they can check out your mom? My mom, for god's sake. When I got over the embarrassment and was able to think rationally again, I realized both how funny and how nice it was. If the guys only knew how old she really was. She may look like she's in her twenties but she's lots older. She was in her thirties when she met my dad, over twenty years ago. My dad doesn't look all that much older, either. They figure it's some weird side effect of long term quicksilver exposure -- keeps you looking a decade or so younger than you are. There was a time I thought it would be worth it just for that reason. Come on, young-looking forever, or darn close to it, and being able to turn invisible? What kid wouldn't be tempted?  
  
Then I really looked at her, standing barefoot in the grass with her hair still damp from the shower. Her eyes, silver-colored from the saturation of quicksilver in her blood -- the color my eyes will turn if I have the process done to me. The streaks of silver in her hair -- not gray, not white, but silver. She has six of them, mostly framing her face, and they stand out against the vivid red of the rest. Badges of honor, she calls them. Every single one represents a time when she pushed herself to the limit and ended up either near death or so ill as to make no difference.  
  
She rubbed the top of my head, mussing up my hair, and then went over to Dad and ran her hand across his shoulders as she moved behind him on the way to the chair. He grabbed her hand and held on to it as she sat down and she leaned against his shoulder, sighing. It dawned on me again that they are nothing like my friends' parents, and I'm not talking about looking younger. They actually talk to one another. They touch each other a lot and, though you'd think it would embarrass me, it just seems right. Even when they have to spend weeks apart because of work, they always end up right back where they were, as if they had never parted. I don't think I've ever heard them fight, or argue over anything serious. I'm more likely to see them reading together while lying on the hammock out back. I had heard some major brawls at a couple of my friends' houses, and it always confused me.  
  
I like my parents the way they are.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alyx and Darien were lying in the hammock listening to the crickets chirp in the warm evening air.  
  
"Mikey will be here by morning, and I can't find any trace that this was a set-up on the part of the Agency," Alyx said quietly. "Whoever grabbed her did so for their own reasons."  
  
"Why do I have the feeling that you know why she was taken?" Darien ran his hands down her back and pulled her closer.  
  
"Know? I don't 'know' anything. Rumors, those I have," she said, lifting herself up a bit to rest her head on her hand. "Remember, before we met, how the Chinese tried to get the quicksilver formula through you?"  
  
"Yeah. They went into hiding for a while after that," he answered.  
  
"Well, there have been several attempts over the last five years to acquire not only the quicksilver, the gland, but also our powers. We think they've figured out that it's genetic for us MacTierneys, not an implant." She looked down at him while what she said sank in.  
  
"Ah, crap," he muttered, and she couldn't help but giggle. Some things never changed.  
  
"If they are doing what I suspect, we actually have some time." She brought her hand up to run along his face.  
  
"And what would that be?" he asked, closing his eyes for a moment.  
  
"I think they are going to pump her full of fertilization drugs and then harvest her eggs. She has a birth control implant, so once they remove that it will take at least a month before they could harvest," Alyx said. He cringed a bit. Then the light bulb went off.  
  
"That's why you wanted to go on the job; there wasn't anything they could do to you." He opened his eyes and looked at her.  
  
"You can't still be upset that we can't have any more..."  
  
"No. No, it's not that. I know how lucky we are to have the holy terrors that we do have. You went through hell to make that happen." He pulled her down and kissed her.  
  
"It was worth it. Don't you dare ever think otherwise," she replied with mock anger.  
  
He laughed. "Not likely." She lay down, her head on his shoulder. "Although, with the twins we're at about the limit of what we can handle."  
  
"Smart-ass. I want you to consider something," Alyx said quietly.  
  
"What?" he asked, knowing that the discussion had turned serious.  
  
"Don't be insulted, but it's been a while since you've worked for the Agency. Some things have changed." She curled up against him, breathing in his scent. "You might want to consider a temporary implant if we decide to do this rescue."  
  
"A temporary gland? When did this happen?" He was very surprised that he hadn't known about it, that she had managed to keep it such a complete secret.  
  
"Oh, four years ago, and it has been successfully tested." She slid one of her hands under his shirt to run along his stomach muscles. "The surgery is fairly minor -- most recipients are working again within a week. The gland is absorbed into the body after about six months. There are no side effects, no counteragent, and so far no problems." What she didn't tell him was that they discovered the hard way that her kids could not use the temp gland. Dani's younger sister, Amanda, had volunteered to test it, since she'd opted not to take Phase II and activate her quicksilver abilities. It had nearly killed her. The genetic differences in their systems that allowed the QSX Phase II to work, they'd discovered, caused a rejection of the artificial gland. Though the quicksilver was the same, the artificial gland caused too big a conflict in the QSX kids. They had one choice -- Phase II or no quicksilver ever.  
  
Darien wasn't sure what to think. He still had reminders of his life with the gland, including the tattoo on his wrist. The monitor chip had been removed, but the tattoo remained, the colors stuck where they had been when everything had crashed. Four red and six green. He still felt guilt over that day. It had taken time, but he had gotten over the anger. Even with how it had played out, he wouldn't change a thing.  
  
He still remembered that old dream, and he never once regretted waiting to take the gland out. He'd had that damn dream for three weeks until he finally told Claire 'no,' then never had it again. As a result, he'd been there when the incident he'd dreamed about occurred, so instead of just Alyx and Bobby trying to save those kids, it had been all three of them. The sniper who, in his dream, had gotten off a shot at Bobby and hit Alyx, never had a chance to fire this time. The entire nasty situation had been ended without much of a struggle at all. None of the kids being held hostage had been injured beyond being a little scared.  
  
When he had finally gotten Alyx alone after that one she must have thought he was nuts or on the verge of quicksilver madness, because he didn't let her go for nearly twelve hours. She seemed to find it somewhat amusing.  
  
He'd kept his foreknowledge a secret the entire time. Turned out Alyx had been keeping a few secrets of her own. They'd been married just a few months later, with her already pregnant, much to his complete astonishment. A couple of those 'missions' she'd said she been on were actually for some surgery, correcting and repairing the damage she'd suffered years before. It's amazing what can change in just five years.  
  
Now she was talking about sticking another gland in his head.  
  
Darien shifted around a bit so that he could actually look at his right wrist. That reminder he had chosen to keep. After all, without the gland, and the turns his life had taken because of it, he wouldn't be where he was now with the things he currently had. He'd always hated the gland, but without it, where would he be? Still rotting in prison. With nothing to look forward to and no one who gave a damn about him. Even though at times it had been pure hell getting here, this was better.  
  
Alyx ran her fingers around the tattoo, following the circular path. She was wearing the ring he'd given her ages ago, the one patterned after the tattoo. "Ah, Dare, I didn't mean to bring up old memories. It... If we do this, I don't want you get hurt, and being able to quicksilver was always helpful in that area."  
  
He moved then so that she was lying beneath him. "You worry too much. I haven't lost all my skills, you know."  
  
She laughed. "Given your current job, I should hope not."  
  
His current job, his business, was to defeat security systems and help create improvements. He'd even done work for some military and government installations -- having worked for the Agency got him the in there. More commonly, though, it was private corporations that he worked for. The one thing he didn't do was computer security. If...when...Alyx left the Agency, she planned to come work with him and handle that side of the business. But for now he got paid to break into places, and then tell the owners how he did it. Got paid damn good money to do it, too. Not quite as exciting as being a thief, but it kept him out of jail.  
  
"I could be sitting around the house, living off the wealth you stole," he said with a smile.  
  
"You can't prove that," she said with a wry grin, her hands moving to lie on his sides. "Just think about it. We're having a family meeting tomorrow evening. Even Jase will be here. You got a hold of Hobbes and Claire, right?"  
  
"Uh-huh." His mind had moved onto other things. Not because he was trying to avoid this discussion, but because it always moved on to other things when she was nearby. "I will think about it. Now, however, I don't want to talk."  
  
"Really? What do you want to do?" Her hands made their way under his shirt again and were finding all those places that made him squirm and think about other things.  
  
"I've been gone almost two weeks and you can ask that?" His voice was soft and he moved lower so that he was whispering in her ear.  
  
"Uh-huh," she said, mimicking him.  
  
"Then I guess I'll just have to show you," he commented, his hands now roving and finding the places that made her gasp and moan.  
  
"Oh, yes please," she said, and then for a long while after was far to distracted by him to even think, much less speak.  
  
  
* 


	2. Chapter 2

*  
  
When I got up the next morning, Uncle Mike was sitting on the back porch with Mom, and I had a feeling they'd been there for a while. I've met all my uncles, Mom's brothers, and she looks completely different from all of them. I'm not talking about just looking younger. All of her brothers are around six feet tall, while my mom is tiny, around five foot. I already towered over her at thirteen, and I hadn't reached my full height yet. If you ignore the gray in Jacob and Patrick's hair, their hair color varies through different shades of brown. My mom's is red -- not auburn, but red. Mikey's hair is the darkest, but he got the weird eyes -- one is a hazel and the other half blue and half green, divided roughly down the center.  
  
It's hard to believe they are twins, at least until they speak. Then they remind me eerily of Ari and Zoe. Finishing each other's sentences. Shoot, you can practically see them sending entire dialogues of information to one another as they talk aloud. Hard to believe that one day I'll be able to do the same.  
  
*Well, Ben, you ready for this?* It was Mike's voice in my mind and Mom whapped him on the arm.  
  
"Don't start, you," she said to him. But she was smiling and then she turned to me. "Mikey wants to check you over. He can check for things I can't."  
  
I shrugged. "Sure." It wasn't like it was the first time Uncle Mike had given me one of these exams...or maybe tests was a better word for it. One thing for sure, I knew I'd be both ravenous and tired by the end of it. Mom got to her feet. "I'll get breakfast started." I watched as she wandered out towards the kitchen, shutting the door behind her. She seemed a lot more relaxed and calm this morning.  
  
"Come on, Ben," Mike said as he stood up.  
  
I didn't argue, and I knew exactly where he was taking me. Out to the garden my mom used for her exercises. It was kind of like a Zen garden with attitude, surrounded by bushes that flowered most of the year -- flowered in colored patterns, mind you. There was the traditional sand containing small islands of greenery, trees, flowers, or small pools of water, some with fish or other small creatures. You'd never know that there was a house just a hundred yards away.  
  
Mom must have been out here yesterday -- the patterns were all new, and some were quite intricate. I've watched her do the patterns with her mind, lifting the boulders to place them in just the right spot. Today it was all curlicues and swirls. Some of the lines were so fine they could not have been done by hand. Once again she had managed to amaze me.  
  
Mike stopped at one of the benches which doubled as storage and pulled out a couple of oversized cushions. From there he led me to the ten foot square of grass in the very center of the garden. I waited patiently as we both sat and got reasonably comfortable in the early morning sunshine.  
  
When he looked at me with those odd eyes of his, I paid attention. Next to my mom and dad, Mike was the one adult I really listened to.  
  
"So, your mom tells me you've been having headaches," he said casually, like I hadn't been keeping this a secret.  
  
Which I had; I should have known better than to try and hide it from my mom. I shrugged. "A few. Nothing too bad." They hadn't been, though they had been getting worse and were coming a bit more often. I didn't mention that.  
  
"Expected. If you have any other symptoms -- bloodshot eyes or nose bleeds -- tell someone. It's important," Mike said.  
  
"But, why? My telepathy is active, what more could happen?" I asked. I'd been told the stories, heard about the potential problems. But heck, all of Mom's first kids had gone through the process themselves. What could be different about me?  
  
"Ben, your mom had a really bad time when she went through it and, although all your older siblings went through it with little trouble, you are the first..." he paused to sort out his thoughts. "Your mom's powers weren't active when she was pregnant with them, or rather only minimally active. You're the first she was pregnant with at full power, and your dad still had the gland back then. We don't know what, if any, difference this will make."  
  
Okay, so he had a point. No one had expected me to become telepathically active at age five. No one had expected Ari and Zoe to be fully aware when they were born. No one had expected my mom would ever be able to have more kids, and some had accused her of being a complete fool for doing so, both because of what she did for a living and because of what she was. Some things are more important, or so she said. I believe her.  
  
"So, what are we doing out here?" I asked Uncle Mike, feeling a little uncomfortable.  
  
"I'm going to test you. We'll try and get an idea of you will be able to do, and perhaps how close you are to getting your full strength." He tipped his head a bit to look at me. "Have you decided?"  
  
I knew what he meant, and yeah, I had. "I'm going to wait a few years and then have it done. I still want to just be me for a while."  
  
He nodded satisfied with my answer. "Wise. You can always change your mind later. It is a serious commitment."  
  
I looked down at my hands and said a bit sheepishly, "I'm beginning to realize that."  
  
Mike laughed. "Center yourself. We have work to do."  
  
I did as he asked and I remembered the first time I had ever done this.  
  
  
// I sat on the living room floor, playing with the dominoes my mom had gotten out for me. To distract me while she talked with Uncle Mike in the kitchen. It was weird -- I knew I wasn't supposed to be listening, that the conversation was private, but it was like I couldn't stop myself and I heard every word.  
  
My dad was upstairs with my twin sisters. I still hadn't decided whether or not I liked them, they were still too small. Guess I would have to be patient and give them a chance to grow up a bit first.  
  
Dad was still real careful around me, like he was afraid that I was angry at him for what happened. I may have been a kid, but I was smart enough to know that it wasn't his fault, that in many ways it had not been him who had gone after me that day, that it was a side effect of the quicksilver gland. I just wished he'd start treating me normally again.  
  
*Mikey, he's got some natural shields, but that's not enough, and I'm not going to be around enough to block out the rest. I'm going back to work in a couple of weeks.* I swear I felt her sigh.  
  
Then it was my uncle Mike's voice in my head. *It's been four months? Then it's not going to go dormant. All right, I'll see what I can do.*  
  
I continued setting up the dominoes, carefully following the intricate pattern I had decided upon. I felt my mom and uncle enter the room and stop to look at my creation.  
  
"Impressive," Uncle Mike said. "You got a minute, Ben?"  
  
I stood up and made my way out of the room, without disturbing the dominoes. I looked up at him. "You aren't going to take it away are you?"  
  
His eyebrows went up.  
  
"I told you, Mikey," my mom said, but she didn't sound angry, just amused.  
  
"No, kiddo. Just want to make it a bit easier for you and for your mom." He waved for me to come sit down next to him as he sat on the staircase. *You're giving your mom headaches.*  
  
I just about fell over in surprise. I mean, I remembered my mom doing that, talking into my head on that...that day, but I thought it must have been my imagination or something. *Is that really you?*  
  
He laughed. "Yes. It's me." He turned to my mom. "No wonder you've been getting headaches."  
  
She sighed, and I thought she was mad at me. She disabused me of that immediately. "No sweets, I'm not mad. Never mad about this. But I am getting tired. Let me show you something."  
  
She did something in my head and all of a sudden I heard...voices. Lots of voices. All in my head. All shouting at me. All from somewhere else. My hands came up to cover my ears, but it didn't help. If anything, the voices got louder, and I was tempted to shout at them to go away. Then, suddenly, they stopped. I looked up at my mom, feeling a bit scared.  
  
"I've been keeping all those other voices out." She sat down next to me. "It takes a lot of energy, plus I'm doing all my regular stuff and taking care of your sisters. Mom's tired, kiddo." She turned to Mikey. "He's going to teach you how to keep them out yourself. He's better suited to do it; you guys have the same talent."  
  
"Huh?" I was confused. "I thought you did that, too?"  
  
She nodded. "I do it a bit differently though." She leaned closer and whispered, "I cheat."  
  
That made me laugh.  
  
"You might as well show him," Mike said to her.  
  
"Yeah, I guess so. Watch the dominoes, love." She did something. I could almost feel it. The dominoes began to fall, and within minutes my hours of work were undone. Then, much to my surprise, they began to stand up again, in reverse. They...the only thing I could think of was...unfell. In seconds, the design I had created was back. Then more dominoes flew out of the box, and in mere moments the design I had been working on was complete.  
  
I turned to her. "You can do a lot more than make puppets dance, can't you?"  
  
"Lots more. Watch." I did. This liquid silver stuff appeared upon her and began to cover her, hiding her from sight. I flinched away, frightened, not understanding. Once it covered her completely she... disappeared.  
  
"Mom?"  
  
"I'm still here." Her voice came from the same spot; I reached out to encounter cold, but under the cold was her arm. As I touched her, the stuff hardened and fell away with a bright metallic sound as it hit the wood of the floor. "It's called quicksilver."  
  
"You turned invisible." I was in complete awe. "Cool!"  
  
Both she and Mike laughed. "One day you may be able to do the same, but..."  
  
I waited, holding my breath, wondering what miracle she was going to perform next.  
  
"First you have to learn to control the power you do have. Will you let Mikey teach you?"  
  
I nodded. Invisible. I'd sit through lots more lessons if it got me closer to being able to turn invisible.  
  
Mom looked at Mike, shaking her head. Upstairs, the twins began to cry. With a pat on my head, Mom got up to go help Dad. I looked at Mike. "Can we get started?" As far as I was concerned, the sooner I learned what they wanted the better. //  
  
  
When I opened my eyes I looked at Mike, who was smiling a bit wryly at me. He handed me a combination lock, the old fashioned kind with the turn knob. "Try to open it." I took it from him and, after a moment, I spun the knob. Right, left, then right again, and it popped open.  
  
"How did you know the combination?" he asked me.  
  
I shrugged. "I guessed is all."  
  
Just then I noticed something in the grass and leaned over slightly to pick it up. Turned out to be an earring. My mom must have lost it at some point. I straightened to see Mike holding a ball in his hand. Looking past me he said, "You're right. I don't understand it, but you're right."  
  
I turned around to see my mom appear, the quicksilver falling away and onto the sand she stood upon, but there were no footprints to where she was. She threw something then, something I could not see. I put my hand up without thinking and caught the...whatever it was. After a moment the quicksilver fell off it, revealing it to be another ball, identical to the one Mike had in his hand.  
  
"How did you know the ball was there?" Mike asked me.  
  
I shook my head. I hadn't known it was even a ball.  
  
"It's not intuition. That I can tell. This is something new." Mike took the ball from my hand and began to juggle the two with one hand.  
  
My mom came over and sat beside me. "Nah, he just inherited this one from his dad. Darien always had incredible luck just when he needed it."  
  
"Now, if he can learn to control it..." Mike mused.  
  
"Exactly," Mom said in agreement.  
  
I was a little confused. "Ummm. What are you guys talking about?"  
  
"Ben, you got an extra talent that you didn't get from me," Mom said with a laugh. "Your dad will be pleased to know you inherited more than just his good looks from him."  
  
I managed not to blush, barely.  
  
"I don't know how, but it is an active talent, just uncontrolled. We'll have to wait and see how strong it becomes, but right now I wouldn't try and train it. If it can be trained." Mike paused shaking his head. "There may be no way to consciously control it."  
  
I held up the earring for her to see. "Found this."  
  
She took it from me. "So this is why you leaned over. I lost this weeks ago."  
  
Just then my stomach growled. I was starved, just like I expected.  
  
Mike got to his feet and held out his hand to me. "Let's get you fed. I'm betting within an hour you'll be ready for a nap."  
  
I took his hand and allowed myself to be pulled upright. He was correct. I could already feel the need for sleep creeping up on me. Good thing they only do these little tests twice a year. They were lots of work. I turned to look back at my mom.  
  
"I'll be along in a few," she said and I got a bit worried about her. "I made pancakes; go eat, before your sisters inhale them all."  
  
I followed Mike out of the garden, but stopped to look back at her one last time. She was lying down across the two cushions and staring up at the sky while she played with the earring I had found.  
  
"She's okay, Ben. Focus on her and feel for a moment. She won't mind." Mike had set his hand on my shoulder.  
  
I did what he suggested. Not eavesdropping, but just that light contact she sometimes did to make sure I was okay. I'd been practicing this, at her request. She said it was an easy way to verify who someone was. Telling friend from foe quickly could never be a bad thing. My mom was calm, content, at peace, with only the slightest undercurrent of worry.  
  
I closed the contact, satisfied.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
When the doorbell rang, Alyx bounced up with a whoop and rushed through the house to the door. Flinging it open, she threw herself at the gentleman on the other side with an enthusiastic, "Hobbesy!"  
  
"Hey, kid, take it easy. I'm not as young as you." He was laughing, though, and returned the hug with as much feeling as she had put into it. In truth, he was only a few years older than her true age.  
  
"It's been months since I've seen you, Bobby. You've been hiding from me," Alyx accused as she stepped back. He still called her 'kid', but it no longer bothered her. Hadn't for years. It was just Hobbes' way.  
  
Moving aside, she looked him over as she followed him into the house. He actually didn't look that much different from when she had first met him. Maybe less hair, which had gone a bit gray over the years, but he was still fit and tough. He walked with a slight limp; he'd taken a bullet to his right femur several years before that had done a hell of a lot of damage. The bone had been shattered in places, and the healing and reconstruction process had not been fun. The fact that he could even walk again had surprised quite a few of his doctors. He'd been forced into a semi-retirement after it had happened, and after a few months of desk duty he had quit.  
  
Now he worked freelance for various companies, including Darien's, doing security and self-defense type training.  
  
"Where is that husband of yours?" he asked her as they walked through the house.  
  
"The thundering herd is all outside. Got too loud indoors," Alyx said, opening the back door for him to walk through.  
  
"Uncle Bobby!" Two redheaded hellions appeared as if by magic and attacked him.  
  
"Hey, kidlettes. Take it easy." He was grinning broadly. He could still be talked into to playing his modified version of hide and seek with them. The objective of his version was to not be found while trying to get to 'home base.' So yeah, he was teaching eight years olds infiltration techniques, but considering who they were, it made sense. Hell, it was almost mandatory.  
  
"Girls, remember our deal?" Alyx said to the twins.  
  
"Yes, Mom," Ari said.  
  
"We remember, but..." Zoe continued.  
  
"We're bored," they said together. "And we don't want to wait for our treat."  
  
Alyx sighed. "Tell you what, I'll give you a little treat now, and big one tomorrow if you let us get through this work. It's not like you're being ignored or anything."  
  
The girls looked at each other, and it was obvious even to Hobbes that a silent conversation was going on between them. Hobbes leaned over to Alyx and whispered. "Were you this bad?"  
  
"No, Bobby, there was only one of me," Alyx replied with a chuckle.  
  
The girls turned to her then. "Agreed. But we want..." Zoe began this time.  
  
"The really 'special' one though." Ari completed their thought.  
  
"Girls, no nasties, understand? Or the next time you get to do it, you'll be doing it yourselves." Alyx admonished them with a serious look.  
  
"We promise," they said as one. "You can check if you want."  
  
Alyx shook her head. "You two are more than smart enough to do the right thing. Just remember that we expect you to."  
  
Both girls looked up at her solemnly and nodded.  
  
"All right, come here." The girls moved closer. Alyx set a hand on a shoulder of each and quicksilvered them. With squeals of delight, the two invisible hellions took off into the yard.  
  
Hobbes shook his head. "Who would have thought that kids would beg to be invisible as a treat?" He turned to Alyx. "How long will it hold?"  
  
"With them? About ten minutes." It was odd, but Ben and the twins had this weird ability to keep the quicksilver active on them for longer that it would normally stay on its own. It was at least partially due to the slightly higher concentration of quicksilver that they had been born with. It wasn't enough for them to go invisible on their own, but it did allow them some limited control when they were quicksilvered by someone else.  
  
"Come on, Bobby. Let's get this over with." Alyx led him out into the yard.  
  
There were three tables set up, one laden with nothing but food. The other two were covered with papers and a variety of electronics. There was a huge map unrolled on one, with several smaller maps also lying atop it.  
  
"Mom, the damn tri-D rig is down again, can you..." Manda sounded rather tired and exasperated.  
  
Jase spoke up then. "You mean you broke it already, Manda? It's not even on the market yet." Most of the group began to laugh, and poor Manda sighed and tried to smile.  
  
"Sure, sweets. I'll see what I can do," Alyx said. She went over to the main computer for the rig and poked at it with her finger. "Hmmm. It's not working."  
  
"Mother!" Manda rolled her eyes.  
  
"Hon, relax. We'll get through this one way or another. This is just the beginning. There's a lot of work to do yet." Alyx went to her and rested a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Manda, you need to do some field work. You're in a rut." That came from Rose, who was looking over the map. Rose was the only one of Alyx's first set of kids who had gotten the red hair, but hers was that copper penny red, with liberal freckles sprinkled across her cheeks and nose. She stood, much like her sisters, at least six inches taller than her mother. Dani, who wasn't here, was the tallest of the girls, standing a respectable five-foot-eight.  
  
Darien got up and walked over to Hobbes, who said, "You know Fawkes, you guys don't need the Agency anymore. You could just do it by yourselves."  
  
Darien rubbed the back of his neck. The gesture had become a habit, after so many years with the gland. "We've thought about it, but they're not ready yet. There's still people who will do anything to get a hold of one of them. As this proves." He waved his hand at the bustle about them.  
  
"I won't be coming with you this time, my friend," Bobby said in a quiet voice. Darien directed him over to some chairs that were an island of quiet among the burgeoning chaos. "My damn leg is not up to an adventure like this." Bobby saw the look on Darien's face and shook his finger at him. "Don't you dare try and blame yourself. It happened two years after you left."  
  
"I know, but...."  
  
"But nothing, Fawkes. You did the right thing. You had a family to worry about. Hell, I'm not sure why you waited so long. We all thought you'd be out of there as soon as you got the good news."  
  
Darien laughed. "I know, but I had my reasons."  
  
Bobby chuckled. "You always did, even if no one else understood them. Look, me and Claire will stay and watch the girls for you. We'll even run info or whatever for you from here, but it's the best I can do these days."  
  
"Bobby, I'm still surprised when you agree to have a lunch with me," Darien said, with a seriousness that was uncommon for him.  
  
"Fawkes, we're friends," Bobby said quietly.  
  
Darien shook his head. "No, Bobby, you and Claire are family." He smiled at him then. "And I would suggest you go say 'Hi' to her before she's forced to hunt you down."  
  
"Guess I should. Between you and the kid working us to death, we don't see nearly as much of each other as we'd like." Bobby got to his feet and patted Darien on the shoulder. "Just so you know, we feel the same way about you guys."  
  
Darien stood up as well. "We should probably go find out if we're as disorganized as we usually are."  
  
Bobby chuckled. "You have to ask?"  
  
They wandered back to the main group, where everyone was trying to figure out what the hell they were going to do. Alyx whapped the power unit for the holographic display with her hand and it suddenly sprang to life. Everyone stared at her.  
  
"What? Sometimes the normal method does work, you know," she said, stepping aside as the image changed.  
  
Manda focused the image on a satellite view of a building. "Okay, here's the target Dani was after. Rumors about this place have been rampant for months and we had supposedly gotten good intel that they were building next generation neutron weapons here." She adjusted the view, superimposing an interior diagram over the existing building. "Dani got in, and then we lost the tracking signal. We didn't get the death confirm, which cannot be prevented if the tracker is removed or if she dies. So either they knew about the tracker and disabled it correctly, or she's in a shielded building and the signal can't get out."  
  
"So she's still in there?" Bobby asked. He'd worked with Dani for a few years and hated the thought that she might be hurt.  
  
"We don't know. We have a six hour gap before we knew there was a problem. If they disabled the tracker, she could have been moved then," Manda answered. She fiddled with the control pad and made some changes to the image. "This is real-time. There has been no movement since we started watching it."  
  
Alyx picked up another control pad and altered the image, zooming out until she could see the location of the building in relation to other features of the land. "The place is remote, perfect for a multi-use lab, but it also makes it difficult to get to." She zoomed out further, studying the area.  
  
"What do you see?" Darien asked.  
  
She shook her head. "Not sure yet."  
  
Rose walked up to the image. "What's this?" She traced her finger along a feature in the landscape.  
  
Manda tapped the pad. "Riverbed."  
  
Rose turned to her. "Where's the river?"  
  
Alyx zoomed the image out a bit more until they could see the start of the river, which began in the nearby mountains. As it flowed down, it vanished. She zoomed in on the area. "They diverted it, it seems."  
  
"Underground," Ben suddenly said.  
  
"Huh?" Just about every adult said at once.  
  
He got up and walked to the image. He glanced at his mom and she zoomed in, anticipating his request. "Look, it doesn't stop flowing or anything, it just disappears into this...wall they put across the river. See, the actual river bed keeps going after about a half mile." He walked around the image as if trying to get a better angle on the view. "They built...something...and diverted the water into it."  
  
"Crap. Manda, what sats are in range?" Alyx asked.  
  
"Give me a sec...got one." The picture was replaced with an enhanced thermal image; it was quite clear now that the river had indeed been diverted and was flowing below ground.  
  
"And gee, big surprise, it flows right past the installation. That explains the lake just a few miles away. That must be where they resurfaced the river." Alyx set the pad back down. "Shit."  
  
"They're generating their own power. No wonder we haven't been able to tap in; they're off the grid. No phone lines, either," Manda said. "This is not good."  
  
Almost as one, Darien, Bobby, and Alyx said, "Is it ever?"  
  
That got a laugh out of everyone else. They had once again proved that they had worked together for far too long.  
  
"How are you going to get in?" Mike asked. "It's not like the Chinese government is just going to let you in with travel visas. We don't even have an embassy there anymore."  
  
Alyx walked back to the display. This time, without her holding the pad, the images began to change. "I can get us close." They looked at the screen. It was a long distance, but the general area where the installation was bordered one of the former Russian states that had been a country in its own right for over twenty years now.  
  
"Piotr," Darien stated. "You think he'll help?"  
  
Alyx looked over at him and nodded. "Oh yeah, I did a little favor for him a couple of years ago and he owes me big time."  
  
"Mom, he'd do it if you just asked. You are god-mom to little..." Rose fumbled for the name.  
  
"Serina. Serina Anatolia," Alyx finished. "I won't repeat the entire thing. Gods, the names they inflict upon their children."  
  
"And he still hasn't caught up with you on number, although he's still working on it from what I understand." Manda added with a grin. "Last count they had five."  
  
"I have something you might find useful," Jase broke in.  
  
"And what technological miracle have you come up with this time?" Darien still couldn't get over how much Jase looked like Kevin. Hell, he looked identical except for the glasses. Jase had had his vision surgically corrected and didn't need them.  
  
Jason Fawkes been working with Alyx's brother Patrick at his computer company for years. Patrick had already made one major leap forward by taking miniaturization of the microchips far beyond what had been available before. Then Jase had joined the company, and dumped the entire industry on its proverbial ass. With a little help from Alyx and Chris, he had created the now-standard holographic display system. With the miniaturization technology that Patrick had perfected, the system was more than feasible. It had been disgustingly simple to create.  
  
Alyx had helped by showing him how she could interface with systems, literally overriding some rules that were considered standard by the industry. They were able to completely redesign how a computer 'thought,' making it much more flexible and adaptable. Chris helped by showing him some variants of quicksilver. That was the real secret to the display. An alternate version of quicksilver was used to refract the light, bending it to a specific area instead of around an object, creating the images of the display that hovered in the air over the projector. Until Jase and Chris met, no one had really considered that quicksilver could be used for anything else. Alyx pulled monumental strings to get Jase access to the formulas. You could say she sold her firstborn to the Agency for it, except that Dani had already been working there.  
  
Jase pulled out a small box and set it on the table. "Say cheese, Cousin." He pressed a series of buttons on the box and across the yard the image of Ben sitting at a table appeared, looking completely solid.  
  
"You did it," Alyx crowed as she walked over to the image and waved her hand through it. "Interesting wavelength. I can actually feel it." She did something and the image wavered for a moment, then returned to normal. "How much data can it store?"  
  
"Only a couple dozen gigs at this point, but that's enough for a short recording, and the image can track to a small degree." He did something, and the image changed to one of the twins walking across the yard. She walked about seven steps and then the image repeated itself. But the image actually moved, walking those seven steps across the grass.  
  
"Hmmm. It'll show on thermals. Using a low heat laser?" Alyx asked, still examining the image. Both twins had come over now and found it fascinating. They began to argue about who would get to try and break it first. Their version of beta testing.  
  
"Yeah. It works best so far. Thought you might find a use for it on your little jaunt," Jase said as he shut it down. "I'll give you the full specs later."  
  
"So, we really going to do this?" Rose asked the group. "Manda?"  
  
"Johnson has no plans to make a rescue attempt, and near as I can tell he has not even informed his superiors that she's been taken." Manda actually sounded angry.  
  
"He's trying to cover his own ass," Bobby commented, and Manda nodded in agreement.  
  
"First, who would be going?" Darien asked.  
  
Voices began to echo across the yard. The final breakdown was this: Michael, Jase, Claire, and Bobby would stay behind, to guard the twins and act as their stateside contacts, dig up info, stuff like that. Those going were Darien, Alyx, Manda, Rose, Chris, and Ben. If Chris going sounded odd, because he did more research than anything else, it really wasn't. Field assignments were mandatory for him, and he could and would act as the medic for the group.  
  
That settled, Darien asked, "Now, how are you guys going to get out of work? This isn't something we can do over the weekend."  
  
Manda coughed and looked a bit embarrassed. "Actually, we're all on medical leave because 'a family member is in a life-threatening situation and it may affect our performance if we stay on the job.'"  
  
Bobby wagged a finger at her. "So not only did you get yourself indefinite leave, but the Agency is paying for it?" She nodded at him. "Where were you when I needed a vacation?"  
  
"How did you get him to sign that?" Rose asked her sister.  
  
"I didn't. You don't think he actually signs most of his paperwork do you? Too busy to be bothered most of the time." Manda sounded disgusted.  
  
Darien got this wistful look in his eyes. "Never much got into forgery. Want a job?"  
  
Everyone laughed.  
  
"Okay guys," Alyx said, breaking up the fun. "Time for the real work. I'm going to make a call. You guys see if you can come up with at least a basic plan for this fiasco-to-be."  
  
The real work had begun.  
  
  
* 


	3. Chapter 3

*  
  
I watched the chaos flowing around me with more than a little astonishment. Despite all the people running around and arguing about this plan or that plan, there was no animosity. In fact, there was far more laughter than anything else. I can say one thing for my family -- when we make up our minds to do something, we do it. Manda and Rose were arguing with Bobby about the best way to infiltrate the building. Chris, Jase, and the twins were playing with the new projector, trying to see how intricate an illusion they could create. Claire had gone inside to make a few phone calls of her own, and Mike was watching me.  
  
"What?" I asked. I could tell he was considering something.  
  
He glanced over at my dad, who nodded slightly to him. I could only wonder what was going on this time.  
  
Mike cleared away the excess maps and ran his hand around the area where the installation was. "Here's where we have to get." He moved his hand to point at the small country northeast of it that Mom's friend Piotr was the ruler of.  
  
It's weird to think of my mom knowing a King, but then again I was surprised to find out she had received a medal from the President himself for some of the things she had done. She's done a lot in her time and, I swear, every day I find out something new about her.  
  
"I'm quite sure Piotr will let you in, so you'll be starting here. It's a almost two hundred miles; what do you think we should do?" Mike was looking at me with a confidence I did not feel. What did I know about this stuff? Not enough, I was quite sure of that.  
  
I looked down at the map, trying to see what Mike thought I could, but all I saw was mountains and wilderness for too many miles.  
  
Mike tsked. "Stop trying so hard. Remember the lock, and the balls from this morning?" He raised his eyebrows.  
  
Dad spoke then. "If there is one thing I've learned from your mom, it's that you have to trust your instincts and your talent."  
  
I opened my mouth to speak, then changed my mind. I mean, I knew I had this weird knack for doing the right thing at the right time; it saved my ass from some serious stupidity on a couple occasions. Mom and Dad had also made sure that we all knew not to rely on our talents, that we were fully capable of doing things without them. There might come a time when our talents, our extra skills, either wouldn't help, wouldn't work, or would complicate things.  
  
This wasn't one of those times, so instead of protesting that I couldn't help, I took a deep breath and simply pointed to a spot on the map. It was in the mountains about halfway between Piotr's border and the lab.  
  
"Manda, can you zoom in on grid 14-C please?" my dad said as soon as I looked up from the map.  
  
Manda didn't even look over at him. She was deep in a discussion with Rose that bordered on an argument. Mike picked up a stray piece of paper, balled it up, and bounced it off her head. She spun about with a snarl, but calmed once she saw the three of us just looking at her.  
  
"Sorry, Mike. What do you need?"  
  
"Grid 14-C, please," my dad repeated, and Manda tapped the commands on the control pad.  
  
I got to my feet and walked to the display. "Closer," I said, not sure what it was that I was looking for. As the image changed I said, "Stop. Shift right please." Once it had I pointed to an odd landmark on the image. "What's that?"  
  
Manda adjusted the image until what was obviously an ancient Buddhist monastery appeared. "How did you know that was there?" she asked me.  
  
I shrugged. I hadn't, and I couldn't even try to explain why I had picked the spot. Just luck I guess.  
  
Manda made a few more changes to the display and the image focused a bit better. "I'll see what, if anything I can find out about this place, but it may have been abandoned for years."  
  
"Just so long as their military hasn't taken it over. I really don't want to incite a war, just rescue Dani," my dad said.  
  
I swallowed hard. This could start a war? But we were just rescuing our sister, our family...  
  
My dad must have caught my look before I got myself under control.  
  
"You can change your mind if you want. No one will blame you," he said in a quiet voice. "You have the skills to do this; we've made sure of it. But it's your first time, and it's understandable that you'd be nervous."  
  
Part of me wanted to stay behind. I was still a kid, after all. Is this what most kids my age did? No, but then most kids weren't part of this family. Mom and Dad had done their best to give us reasonably normal lives, but at the same time had prepared us well for what they knew the future could bring. The Chinese government grabbing Dani was just one example of the things that have happened over the years. Someone was always out to get us, some even from our own country. The MacTierney/Fawkes family was very popular, much to our dismay.  
  
"Darien, he needs to be there," Chris suddenly said. He looked like he was staring off into the distance without really seeing anything. After a moment, he shook his head. "Sorry about that."  
  
"The oracle has spoken," Rose commented in a deep voice.  
  
"Funny sis, oh so ha-ha. Should I tell everyone you've been making time with Jase? Oops." Chris started to laugh as his younger sister glared at him.  
  
Dad looked over at Jase, who was blushing furiously. "Rose, huh?"  
  
Manda cleared her throat loudly. "People, we do have work to do."  
  
I relaxed and watched the interplay between all these people, wondering if I would ever feel even half the confidence they were showing. They acted as if sneaking into enemy territory was a daily occurrence.  
  
Then I wanted to whap myself in the head. Just what the hell did I think they had been doing all these years? This *was* just another job for them -- though perhaps a bit more personal than usual -- and they were treating it as such. Nevertheless, I felt a bit thrown off by it.  
  
It was Bobby who spoke to me then. "Ben, if they let themselves get all emotional, they'd never stand a chance. They're worried, every one of us is, but they need to push it aside for now." He laid a hand on my shoulder. "Trust me, I've been there myself."  
  
I nodded, trying but not quite understanding, not yet.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
It was about two AM when Darien finally got a quiet moment with Alyx. Everyone had helped clean up and then headed for home, planning on meeting again the following afternoon. They all had to sleep sometime. He found Alyx standing in her office, thumbing through a picture album. It was the one he had gotten for her years ago, back when she was unable to have any contact with her kids. He leaned against the door frame and watched her.  
  
"You okay?"  
  
She turned to him with a smile. "Yeah."  
  
"Liar." He walked over to her.  
  
"What, you want the truth? Getting hysterical and emotional won't do a hell of a lot of good," she snapped at him. She had spent most of her life doing her damnedest to keep her kids safe, and yet, even as adults, they still faced dangers like this every day. It just got to her on occasion.  
  
"This isn't like you," he said quietly. "You got Piotr to agree to help. Between you and Manda you'll have the intel we need. Come on, you've got one of the most experienced and talented group of agents that any agency director ever had wet dreams over. What could possibly go wrong?"  
  
Alyx sighed. "To borrow a phrase: 'the mind boggles.'"  
  
He laughed and wrapped his arms around her. "We'll get through this. You'll see, everything will work out just fine. Somehow it always does."  
  
"Dare, I hate this. Hate being a target. Hate having made my...our...kids targets." Alyx sounded both lost and angry. "I'm getting too old for this shit."  
  
"I take it you haven't looked in the mirror lately. This whole family looks like an ad for the fountain of youth, or a really expensive plastic surgeon." Even he had to admit he still looked far younger than he should. The few gray hairs that had begun to appear he ignored, knowing that he had more than earned them over the years.  
  
"Oh yeah, I can see the Agency upping its fundage by selling illegal glands. 'Just six months of quicksilver use and you too can look like a twenty-year-old forever.'" Alyx stepped away from him, going to the window. "And all these fat forty-somethings forking over their cash to have a hole drilled in their heads." She leaned against the glass and looked out over the darkened yard. "I still haven't decided if it's worth it, and I've lived with the results for over twenty years."  
  
He couldn't argue. In many ways it was a high price to pay. Yeah, she got benefits of youth, possibly a longer life span (barring accidents) and remarkable intelligence. But she also got a lifetime of working just to keep herself free and her family safe, of trying not to worry overly much about who might be lurking around the next corner. It was one of the few reasons she had stayed with the Agency back in the good -- or bad, depending on your interpretation -- old days with Charles Borden as the Official.  
  
Borden had retired, his goals accomplished, a few years after Dani had come to work at the Agency, after Darien and Alyx had been married and Ben was, to all appearances, growing just like any other child. Since then, there had been seven other directors. Three hadn't lasted very long, and none of them really understood how to handle a group of literally super-powered agents. Time and time again either Alyx, or Darien when he had still been working there, had been forced to explain, in simple terms, what they would and would not do. One director had left after only a month, having discovered that Alyx really could read minds. The thought of it made the guy so terrified he'd ended up in a psych hospital for a short stay.  
  
Johnson, the current idiot in charge, was simply nasty. He stayed within the rules that Alyx had laid out so long ago, but barely. He was cold, callous, and thought of them as nothing more than tools to be used as appropriate. He insisted on defining what was 'appropriate,' even though he never took the time to understand what they could do as individuals. Their talents varied and, on more than one occasion, he'd sent the wrong person to get the job done. You don't send a telepath to do a job that needs a telekinetic, even if both can quicksilver.  
  
It was obviously getting on Alyx's nerves. She'd worked at the Agency far longer than most people. Agents usually moved on to more reputable agencies as soon as they could or retired, their careers over, but she had stayed. Part of it was a need to do something with the abilities she had, even though she still disliked using them. It had taken years before she was truly comfortable with them.  
  
Darien sat down on the sofa that was off to one side of the room. "You could always quit."  
  
Alyx shook her head. "Not yet. I talked to the kids; when Johnson finds out about this, and he will, I plan to take full blame for it. I'm senior and I'm their mother. I can claim undue influence and Johnson won't be able to argue with it. Especially if I go over his head."  
  
Darien nodded, unsurprised at her solution. Time to spring his decision on her. "I talked to Claire and Chris." He rubbed the back of his head, caught himself doing it, and sighed. "I'm gonna have the temp put in."  
  
She turned to look at him, more than a little surprised. "Why? I mean, what influenced your decision?"  
  
"Out of those going, only you and Rose have active quicksilver. I thought having a third person might be helpful. It's not like it's forever or anything." He leaned forward to rest his forearms on his thighs.  
  
"You don't have to do this." Alyx walked over to stand before him. "I know how difficult a decision this is for you."  
  
"You know, in the end, it wasn't that hard at all. I just asked myself what lengths I'd go to to help our kids, and decided I couldn't do any less for yours." He reached out and took her hands. "Looks like the world is going to have to get used to dealing with the original invisible man again."  
  
Alyx laughed for a moment. "Thank you."  
  
"No need." He pulled her down to sit next to him. She curled her legs up on the cushions and leaned against him. "Try and get some sleep."  
  
Alyx snickered. "Sleep? What's sleep?"  
  
Darien growled at her under his breath, but without malice. "Pretend, then."  
  
She shifted slightly and sighed. "For you."  
  
It took a few minutes, but he knew when she finally fell into at least a light sleep. She'd probably had to force herself into it. Not surprising, given the circumstances.  
  
Darien wasn't ready for sleep yet. He'd be sleeping for several days when they put the new gland in, and when he woke he'd be able to quicksilver again. Part of him was convinced he was nuts to be doing this. Part of him was terrified something would go horribly wrong. Part of him was afraid it would work perfectly and that he'd find himself unwilling to give it up when the time came.  
  
He caressed her face gently and she muttered something in her sleep.  
  
Time would tell, he supposed. Time would tell.  
  
  
  
"So Claire, how is the work going?" Alyx was perched on the edge of a table as Claire checked over Darien's vitals. He would be coming around any time, and the initial tests had all come back normal.  
  
"Quite well, actually. We may never be able to recreate your parents' work exactly, but we've made some incredible headway. The potential benefits of their theories are enormous." Claire made an adjustment to the I.V. drip and walked over to stand beside Alyx. "We're doing human trials with three of the correction drugs now. The one for Downs Syndrome is having the greatest success rate, especially since that one can be treated in utero."  
  
Alyx nodded. After the gland removal problem had been solved, she had turned the focus of her private lab onto recreating the original QSX project, with the hopes of using the information to prevent or correct any number of illnesses or conditions. Their biggest success so far was a vaccine that, initially, seemed to protect against a variety of cancers, but that was still only in the animal testing stages.  
  
After Darien had left the Agency, Claire had taken the time to get Christopher up to speed and then left to take the job Alyx had offered her. The theories behind the QSX Project had always intrigued her, so she had jumped at the chance to work on it with the funding that it deserved.  
  
One group was actually working on figuring out the Phase I drug. So far, with little success. They had tracked down some information, but the director in charge of the project had destroyed all known copies of most of the data, except for the list of children and the basics for Phase II. He had eventually become the director of the 'Changeling' agency that used deep cover operatives to further their worldwide goals. Eberts had been a member of the group, and when Alyx had come to the Agency he'd been given the task of testing her until she broke. If she broke, he was supposed to eliminate her. If she failed to break, she was to be brought into the group.  
  
Cleaning up that nest of nasties had taken a ton of work and nearly three years from when they discovered Eberts was one of them. It had taken a long, long, time to get over that experience, for all of them, but it earned them their first Presidential commendation.  
  
On the bed, Darien groaned and opened his eyes. Claire went over to him and helped him sit up. "How do you feel, Darien?"  
  
He gingerly touched the back of his head, and was surprised to find it didn't hurt nearly as much as he expected. "Okay, better than the first time. How long was I out?"  
  
"Four days, as expected." She sat next to him and removed the I.V. line from his arm. "You ready to give it a test run?"  
  
"Now?" he asked, a bit surprised. He assumed he'd get a chance to get used to the idea before having quicksilver crawling over his body again.  
  
"Normal procedure," Claire answered. "You've done this before, so see if you can trigger it on your own."  
  
Darien tried, but without success. It felt like how he remembered doing it, yet nothing happened. He shook his head. "Out of practice, I guess."  
  
Claire turned to Alyx, who got up and came over to the bed. Darien hadn't even realized she was there. "Well, Dare, think you can handle the new training method?"  
  
"Not the spiders again?" Darien complained. He'd really hoped to not have to worry about his heart rate and adrenaline this time.  
  
Alyx laughed. "No. We set up the fear/flight response as a secondary life-saving protocol only. We ended up using Mikey's idea." She reached out to touch his face. "I'm going to show you how."  
  
It took him a moment, then he caught on. "Ohhhh, I get it. Do it. The sooner I'm functional, the better."  
  
"Close your eyes and relax," she said, doing the same.  
  
He still did the meditation and biofeedback, just as Alyx did. It had become a habit after so many years, and it helped after a long or bad day, so he'd kept in reasonable practice. He felt her gently enter his mind.  
  
*Ready?*  
  
*Always.*  
  
She quicksilvered then, showing him how to do it, or at least how she did it. A moment later, he was able to do the same. He'd forgotten how much he disliked the feel of the quicksilver as it oozed out of his pores and slid across his skin. He had to force himself not to shudder in revulsion. Next he felt her putting other info into his mind. Teaching him the fine control he would need, and setting up the secondary programming. She did this quickly and easily, as if she had done it before.  
  
When she slid back out of his mind, he opened his eyes to look at her. The quicksilver had fallen away under his control and he grinned at her.  
  
"Holy shit," she breathed, sounding almost shocked.  
  
Claire came over and looked at him. "Well, that's new." She turned to Alyx. "Maybe it's because it's his second gland. He already had the original neural pathways set, so the gland might have increased production because of it."  
  
"Ummm, guys, care to tell me what is going on?" Darien asked, concern creeping into his voice.  
  
"See for yourself," Alyx said, gesturing at the mirror over on one wall.  
  
Darien tossed off the covers and swung his legs out of bed, surprisingly steady given what he'd been through. Looking in the mirror, it took him a moment or two to notice anything beyond the mess his hair was. Then he focused on his own eyes. "What the...?" He turned back to the two women in the room. "Is this normal?"  
  
"For gland recipients, no, but you are a special case." Claire walked over to stand beside him. "They should return to normal when the gland shuts down."  
  
"I think they look neat, but then I'm a bit biased," Alyx said from where she still sat on the bed.  
  
Darien turned around with a laugh. "I guess I can live with it for now."  
  
His eyes had turned silver, just like Alyx's.  
  
  
  
They spent two days letting Darien finish recovering and making sure he truly had the control necessary to quicksilver when needed. It still surprised him to think that there were as many as six agents at any time running about with these modified glands. Who could have guessed all this would happen back when Kevin successfully implanted the first one into Darien's head.  
  
There were some differences between then and now. Since the response was no longer tied to adrenaline, he had to relearn how to control it. So he practiced, sometimes with amusing results. The basics that Alyx had dumped into his head were very useful, but the was still the one who had to learn the control. In some ways it was harder for him because he had done this before, but he had to admit the benefits were interesting.  
  
The first time he convinced himself to hold the quicksilver beyond thirty minutes was frightening for him. Even after nearly ten years without a gland, he still had a near hysterical fear of going quicksilver mad. But when there were no headaches, no pain, no degradation of his sense of self, he was able to relax and even begin to enjoy the experience. He couldn't help but think about all the trouble he could get into. There was this one piece of art work he'd been coveting for a while, and the temptation was so strong he could almost taste it.  
  
Alyx put it into perspective though. "Can we get Dani home first, before you start casing places, hmmm?"  
  
Darien actually looked a bit embarrassed, but he knew she wasn't really angry at him.  
  
They were leaving at the end of the week, so they continued to gather intel and disseminate what they did have. They had the plan set to get them into Piotr's country and to his border. They had a plan to get them to the halfway point, that semi-abandoned monastery in the mountains. From there, however, they were running into trouble. The installation was like China's version of Area 51 in Nevada. The government didn't officially acknowledge the place existed. Zoe summed it up best: "Methinks they doth protest too much."  
  
Manda used Alyx's security clearance and Johnson's signature to get any and all information they could find, including what the governments of several other countries had collected on the place. Between satellite reconnaissance, pooled information, and records they had been able to filch from the Chinese government, they had an approximate layout of the building.  
  
They were suitably impressed by the engineering feat it took to divert that river, but this was the country that dammed the Yellow river. The largest project of its type, ever. Creating an underground river and power plant must have seemed simple by comparison. In fact, some of the same engineers had worked on both projects, which is how they had tracked down some of the blueprints and schematics for the lab.  
  
The day before they were to leave, Alyx declared a party. They had been working on this non-stop for over a week, and they needed to blow off some worry and anxiety before they left. She fired up her smoker and declared that they were not allowed to discuss the mission at all. It was verboten. She had trouble holding to her owns rules, though, after they discovered some interesting communiques hinting that Dani was indeed at the lab and was still alive.  
  
Alyx watched her family as they strolled about the yard, doing their best to pretend they were having a good time. She knew most of them had tomorrow on their minds. Both Darien and Ben kept rubbing their wrists where they'd had their trackers put in. The trackers doubled as vital sign monitors and would send a signal out if the person were to die. All of the I-Men had one implanted as a precaution. Darien's had been slipped in under his old tattoo, no need for a new one. Ben had his covered with a four leaf clover. Everyone had one. Rose had a rose covering hers, Manda a black and white yin yang symbol, Chris had chosen and intricate Celtic knot pattern, and Alyx's was a triskelion. The tattoos were small, about the size of a dime, and the devices were almost undetectable under the skin. The tattoo's did act like monitors; the colors bright when the trackers were active, dull and muted when inactive.  
  
Neither Darien nor Ben had been thrilled about the idea, but had relented when Alyx showed them she had one herself. She had avoided getting one for years, but after one really awkward mission, she'd decided it was better to have the tracker than to risk being permanently lost. She'd managed to get out of the situation on her own that time, but it had been close. There were just enough people who knew about them out there that some situations ended up being far more dangerous than even they could predict. Like this situation with Dani -- this was not the first time tempting bait had been set out that they had fallen for. It was just the first time the trap had worked.  
  
The afternoon was successful, although at one point Alyx had to order Manda tossed into the pool because she refused to stop working. Manda had taken the hint and actually enjoyed herself the rest of the day. Even, maybe especially, for this family, it couldn't be work all the time. They'd start to forget that they were indeed human beings and not tools to be used when needed and then put away without a thought. A paycheck could not, and did not, make up for being treated like a thing.  
  
Once the party was in full swing -- the young ones suitably entertained, the adults cheerful and relaxed -- Darien snagged Alyx and dragged her off to a quiet corner. "Hey you, the Keep..." he caught himself as he slipped back into old habits. "Claire has ruled me fit for duty and removed my newest set of stitches."  
  
Alyx chuckled. "Guess at this point we should be surprised if the hair even grows back in."  
  
"Don't say that. Don't even think that," he said, dismay evident in his voice.  
  
Alyx just laughed harder. "Why'd you drag me away from the fun?"  
  
They had ended up back inside the house and he was trying to lead her upstairs. "Because you are not following your own decree, and I didn't think you'd enjoy being tossed in the pool."  
  
Alyx froze halfway up the staircase and refused to go further. "What are you talking about, Darien?"  
  
Instead of trying to force her up the stairs he simply sat down. "You've spent all day making sure everyone else was having fun and not thinking about tomorrow. I don't think you've sat down even once, and usually we can't get you and the twins out of the pool."  
  
Alyx sighed. "I just..." She sat down next to him. "I needed to keep busy, that's all."  
  
"It's not your fault you know," he said quietly.  
  
"I know, but it is my responsibility." When Darien began to protest she shook her head. "No one, especially Johnson, who is still off in the land of denial, was willing to take responsibility for what happened. So I did."  
  
Now it was Darien's turn to sigh. As usual, she was working too hard and trying to cover everyone else's ass. "Well, for the next several hours you are not going to do anything."  
  
"But..."  
  
"The kids will be fine. There are plenty of adults down there who will gladly take care of them while you get some much needed down-time." Darien drew her to her feet and gave her a slight push to get her moving up the stairs.  
  
"But..." she tried to protest again.  
  
At the top of the stairs he spun her around. "No more talking. Besides, I want to check how this gland works under certain specific conditions," he whispered in her ear.  
  
That got her attention. "And what conditions might those be?"  
  
"Close contact ones," he replied. "Thought I said no talking." He moved closer and she backed away with a smile.  
  
When he finally caught up with her, they were both breathless and she was more than willing to let the worries of the present fall away.  
  
  
  
"Uncle Mike, where are they going?" Ari nodded in the direction of her parents.  
  
Mike looked down at the girls as they bobbed in the pool, currently not spraying water at anyone who came near. He decided, given what they were capable of, to go with honesty. "Your dad thinks she needs some quiet time before tomorrow, and I agree."  
  
"But wasn't that the point of today?" Zoe asked.  
  
"For everyone to relax and not worry for a while?" Ari added.  
  
"Quite true, but what has your mom been doing all day?" Mike asked so that they would see for themselves.  
  
"She's been cooking..." Ari began.  
  
"And cleaning... " Zoe added.  
  
"And making sure everyone's been having fun." Ari finished.  
  
Mike had learned to simply follow the sentence instead of trying to keep track of who said what. Typically they were saying the same thing anyway. He just raised an eyebrow at them.  
  
"Oh," they said after moment.  
  
"She's been making sure we had fun..." Zoe started this time around.  
  
"And not having any of her own," Ari said, completing their thought. "Well, she's been real worried about Dani, and then about Dad..."  
  
"But today she's feeling better." Zoe turned to her twin with a shrug.  
  
"How do you girls know that?" Mike asked them, not really all that surprised. "Have you been eavesdropping on your mom?"  
  
"Not like brother dear does," Ari said shaking her head.  
  
"We just kind of 'feel' what she does," Zoe tried to explain.  
  
"Come here, you two." As they swam over to the edge of the pool, he moved to sit at the edge, dangling his feet in the water. When they were near he laid a hand on each of their heads and very lightly checked them over. When he was done he looked down at them with a sigh. "Well girls, it looks like you're developing a touch of empathy there." He removed his hands. "Just remember, eavesdropping with empathy is just as bad as listening in on what someone is thinking."  
  
"We know, and we try..." Zoe went first this time.  
  
"But sometimes we can't help it," Ari added, her voice going quiet. They knew the rules and knew why the rules were there.  
  
"We're sorry," they said as one.  
  
"Now, do I sound angry to you?" Mike said to them with a smile.  
  
They shook their heads, unsure of their voices.  
  
"We'll just have to work on those shields of yours, now won't we?" he said, trying to make sure they knew he was not angry or even upset.  
  
"Okay, but not today..." Ari was frowning.  
  
"We're supposed to be having fun and not working, remember?" Zoe stated with an astonishingly serious tone.  
  
Mike laughed. "Agreed."  
  
He watched as the girls took off with a whoop and a splash and he wondered again how his sister managed to deal with such a handful.  
  
He looked over the crowd of mostly adults and tried to comprehend the miracle that all these people were. Even Jase, who was a normal human compared to the rest, was a miracle of science. Mike had seen photos of Kevin Fawkes, and the resemblance was uncanny. He'd watched the boy grow up over the years and, even after growing up in a house full of geniuses himself, watching Jase come into his own had been a joy to behold.  
  
They had made a point to channel his energy away from anything medical. It had been astonishingly easy; even as a boy, he'd shown a knack for designing electronics. Mike, along with Jase's mother, Rachel, had made a point of encouraging it. They were trying to avoid him getting involved with the quicksilver project again, and they succeeded, at least partially.  
  
And now Jase and Rose were seeing each other. Not a big deal -- in fact it was nice that they had found each other. Mike knew how hard it could be for people like himself and his family to find someone to be with. Your average person just couldn't comprehend what they were, so most relationships were short term at best. Relationships with coworkers and others in the government were risky, and always had underlying currents of distrust. People like Bobby and Claire were rare, and every member of this family valued them highly. Not only for what they had done, but because they truly were friends with all of them. Two 'normal' people who showed no fear or covetousness for their abilities. They were friends -- family -- nothing more and nothing less.  
  
Mike looked over at Ben who was lying along one of the table benches with an arm flung over his eyes. He pushed himself up and walked over to him. "You okay Ben?"  
  
Ben moved his arm and looked up at his uncle. "Just a headache." He sat up and gestured for Mike to sit beside him.  
  
"You sure? You are allowed to be a bit apprehensive about all of this," Mike said. The boy was more than capable of handling it, at least with the people he was going with, he just didn't realize it.  
  
"Well, yeah, a little, but I don't see them worrying about it." He waved his hand at the various family members spread across the yard. Some in various states of inebriation.  
  
"That's how they've been trained. Trust me, on the inside they're just as nervous as you are. They, we, always are before every big mission. Whether we have a week or just hours to plan for it." Mike wanted Ben to understand that, for all that his family could do, they were still human.  
  
Ben nodded. "Mom's real worried. She thinks it's her fault," he said this quietly.  
  
Now, Mike knew that Ben knew better than to eavesdrop, which meant he must have been picking it up randomly. Not difficult; Alyx had been broadcasting her distress loud and clear to anyone who could pick it up. Ben's empathic talent must be kicking in a bit stronger. It had always been a bit vague and weak before, usually just ancillary to his telepathy.  
  
"Not quite, but she does feel responsible, for many reasons," Mike clarified for him.  
  
Ben nodded in agreement. "True." He rubbed the back of his head, in unconscious imitation of his father. He looked at Mike then.  
  
Those blue-gray eyes of his still looked out of place, considering how much he looked like his father. Darien's looks and Alyx's pre-quicksilver eyes. "Trust yourself and your family, Ben. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised."  
  
Ben laughed a bit ruefully. "Mike, every day is full of surprises with this family."  
  
Mike joined the laughter. What could he say? It was true.  
  
  
* 


	4. Chapter 4

*  
  
I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I mean, this place was a castle for gods' sake, and we were staying here as guests. My mom and this guy Piotr were talking quietly across the room, while I wandered about looking at, well, everything. It was pretty much what you'd expect in a castle. Old furniture and stuff mingled with the modern. I had expected it to be cold in here, but it wasn't. The place had been upgraded over the years and the heating system was doing its job just fine. I wandered into a side room, a sitting room I'd guess you'd call it, and looked around. The painting over the fireplace made me do a double take.  
  
"Holy shit," slipped out before I had a chance to stop it.  
  
My mom appeared an instant later to admonish me, but stopped when she saw what I had commented on. "Gods, Piotr. Why on earth did you keep that awful thing?"  
  
Piotr and everyone else filed into the room. "And how could I not keep it? Their beloved Queen who gave up her life for me." He said this with a straight face, but my mom whapped him on the arm.  
  
"It's not that bad, Alyx," my dad said to her.  
  
"But I look..." she began.  
  
"Regal," Manda sighed.  
  
"Royal," Chris added.  
  
"Bored," Rose concluded, and that got everyone laughing.  
  
I just stared at the painting. I could tell it was my mom, even though her hair and eyes were the wrong color. The deep purple gown she wore must have cost a fortune, as well as the crown. Crown? The painting itself was very well done, but it was confusing the heck out of me.  
  
"Your mom was married to Piotr for a short time," my dad said, coming to stand beside me. "It was for work, but they were close friends and still are, obviously."  
  
"But if she was married to him..." I wasn't quite sure what I was asking.  
  
He paused thinking. "She was hired to play the role of his wife, when the woman he was supposed to marry was killed. Your mother looked like her."  
  
"Then how come she's not still married to him?" Not that I wanted her to be, but this was one story I had not heard.  
  
He directed me over to a couple of chairs and we sat down. "This is the short version, ask me later and I'll give you the details." He paused to take a breath. "In order to find out who was trying to kill Piotr, your mom made some arrangements. The result being she took and an assassin's bullet for Piotr and as far as the world knows, died." He leaned back in the chair. We were all tired after today's traveling. "You know that tattoo on Mom's back, the dragon?"  
  
I nodded. It was impressive.  
  
"Well, that covers the scar from that fun experience. Ask her about it sometime. She'll show it to you and tell you the entire story from her perspective." He smiled a bit and then yawned, which got me started. "Come on," he said, getting to his feet. "Let's see if we can convince them to stop talking shop for eight hours."  
  
We walked over to the rest of the family, all of whom were deep in conversation with Piotr and several others. They kept bouncing from English to Kanvian, a variant of Russian, and back. A third gentlemen was escorted to them as we approached, and Mom and Rose switched to Chinese to speak to him.  
  
"We aren't going to distract them, are we?" I asked my dad, who shook his head with a laugh.  
  
He walked up behind Mom and set a hand on her shoulder. She finished her sentence and then turned to look at him. "Whatcha need, Dare?"  
  
"Not to break up the fun, but some of us need to get some sleep," Dad said and much to my surprise Manda and Chris nodded in agreement. It seems that the quicksilver messes with sleep cycles for those who have it fully active, so my mom and Rose only slept a few hours a night normally, and could keep going for several days if necessary. The rest of us needed a normal night's sleep, and the travel time getting here had been almost twelve hours. I was tired.  
  
"My apologies, Darien," Piotr said in a resonant tenor. He made a hand motion, and several people appeared suddenly. "They will show you to your rooms. Actually, it's a wing of the building usually reserved for diplomatic visitors."  
  
"No need to go to any trouble, we don't need to stay here at all," my dad said, not wanting to cause any difficulties.  
  
Mom elbowed him.  
  
"He's legitimizing our visit, Darien," Manda informed him.  
  
Dad sighed. "Sorry, it's been a while since I've done this."  
  
Piotr laughed. "Don't worry about it. I'd give you those apartments gladly even if this were nothing more than a friendly visit. The fact that it is business, business that is of some concern to me, is only a side benefit. It's not often I get visitors who are not after something from me."  
  
Now it was Mom's turn to laugh. "You don't know what we're asking for yet."  
  
"Ari...Alyx...it matters not. I will help any way I can," Piotr said seriously.  
  
My mom moved to him and kissed him on the cheek, and my dad said nothing. "Thank you Piotr."  
  
"Come, let's get you settled. We can discuss this better after we have all had some sleep."  
  
I yawned again just then, no longer caring that I was in a castle or that my mom had just kissed the King as if she did it all the time. Right now I wanted something vaguely resembling a bed and sleep, lots of sleep.  
  
The next two days were busy, very busy. At first I felt like they were keeping me out of the loop. Half the time they were speaking in another language, one of four, and of them, besides English, I only partially understood the Kanvian. My dad was in the same boat and he finally pointed it out to my mom, who truly looked embarrassed. So now I could understand both the Kanvian and the Chinese. Mom had dumped the languages into our heads, leaving us with killer headaches for a few hours, but it was worth it. I felt like part of the group now, instead of a tag-along.  
  
Mom was the only one in the family who could do that little trick. Even Mike doesn't quite understand how she does it, and he's experienced it for himself. Another weird benefit of her odd ability.  
  
Currently we were going over the equipment that we were taking with us. There wasn't that much and most of it was clothing and food. The rest was the various electronics we would need to stay in contact with the outside world and the few pieces that might help us break in to the Lab. I was surprised to learn we'd be doing this on foot, since vehicles would be both conspicuous and nearly useless. The terrain was too difficult for even the toughest off-road vehicle. We were hoping to do the distance in a week with some help from locals. That's why Mr. Chou was here. He was Piotr's contact across the border, keeping him informed about the installation. He was even providing clothes to help us blend in a bit better. Though between the silver and blue eyes we had and Mom and Rose's red hair, there was no way we'd be mistaken for locals under even the most cursory scrutiny.  
  
When my dad came home with his eyes changed, I had to admit I kind of freaked. I knew it would happen to me, but it wasn't supposed to happen to Dad. He was just getting a temporary quicksilver gland, things like that weren't supposed to happen. No one was unduly concerned about it, though, so I tried not to be. The first time I watched my dad quicksilver was both exciting and frightening. I had seen Mom do it a few times -- heck, I've had it done to me a few times -- but that was Mom. Dad, well Dad was the normal one, had been for years. Even though I knew he'd done this before, it was still weird to see him doing it now. I guess I'd gotten used to him not having super-powers. And maybe, maybe, I was a little afraid.  
  
  
// "Mom, do it again," I crowed. Watching her do those tricks with my toys was just so neat, and since she'd been working so much lately I was able to guilt her into doing more than she normally would. Right now she was acting out one of my favorite stories as she read from the book, and I was loving it. I was hoping to get her to do the next one in the series after. I was pretty sure I could. All I had to do was give that look and she'd cave. She always did.  
  
She was reaching the best part of the story when she suddenly stopped, sucking in air and squinting her eyes as if in pain. What surprised me more was that all the toys she'd been controlling stopped and dropped at that same moment.  
  
"Mom?" I asked a bit concerned.  
  
"'Sokay, honey. Stay here. I'll be right back." She set down the book and wandered out of the play room. After a moment to consider, I decided to follow. It wasn't normal for Mom to suddenly stop playing with me unless it was the phone, and then it was usually work.  
  
"Dare?" I heard her ask. There was a grunt from somewhere nearby. "Dare, what's wrong?"  
  
I peeked around the corner to see my dad curled up on the floor holding the back of his head. Mom had knelt down next to him and was trying to help him, I guess. I could only wonder what was wrong.  
  
When he finally relaxed and sat up, he actually looked frightened. "Alyx, what the hell is happening?"  
  
She shook her head. "I don't know." She looked at his wrist at the funny snake tattoo I knew was there. "Have they changed anything recently that I don't know about?"  
  
He shook his head. "No..." the words got lost as he collapsed into convulsions once again. Mom held him through it, keeping him from smashing his head back against the floor. As soon as he relaxed she got up and ran from the room. She didn't even notice me she was in such a hurry. I poked my head around the corner and looked at my dad. He looked the same as he always did, if a little scared.  
  
"Hey, Ben," he said quietly.  
  
Timidly I walked over to him. "What's going on?"  
  
"Nothing you need to worry about, kiddo." He sounded so normal. Like he hadn't just spent the last several minutes fighting what must have been the nastiest pain in the world.  
  
"Dad..." I was smart enough to know when I was being lied to. Dad was never very good at it around us.  
  
Mom came back then, carrying a needle and a square of cloth. "Give me that arm, bub." she said to him and he complied without argument. She swiped the square of cloth on the inside of his elbow and I could smell the alcohol. Then she carefully poked him in the vein that was standing out in his arm.  
  
"Why doesn't it hurt nearly as much when you do this?" he asked with a sigh.  
  
She removed the needle the contents in him, now. "Because she doesn't live with you," she said with a chuckle. "Ah Dare, it's too soon. You need to tell Claire."  
  
He set a hand on her shoulder. "I have. She says there's nothing wrong."  
  
Alyx shook her head. "That can't be right. Maybe..."  
  
He placed a hand over her lips. "Not now, small ears." He nodded towards me where I was trying to disappear behind a chair.  
  
Mom turned and spotted me. "Thought I told you to stay put." She didn't sound angry at least.  
  
I came out from behind the chair and shrugged. "I was worried." When I got over to them she took my hand in hers.  
  
"Can you give me and your dad a minute? I promise I'll come and finish the story after." She tried to smile, but I could tell she was upset about something.  
  
"Sure." I said and backed out of the room. I peeked back around after a moment to see my dad holding my mom. I knew it was going to be more than just a minute before she came . With a sigh I walked to the play room and began to pick up the toys. I hoped she'd tell me what was going on. I didn't like it when she was scared this way. //  
  
  
Of course it had been just six months later when everything fell apart. When the problem with the quicksilver gland and the counteragent was finally admitted to. By then my dad had had enough, was not willing to risk endangering anyone else, especially not me or my sisters. They eventually told me what had happened. There was a problem with the newest version of the counteragent they were using. There turned out to be residue it was leaving behind that was interacting with the quicksilver, or rather that addition that had been made to the quicksilver. It not only caused the madness to come quickly and unexpectedly, but also did not register on the monitor.  
  
I always wondered why they didn't pick it up in testing and Mom explained that the only way they could test it was through computer simulation and with rats. The computer sims showed no problems and neither did the rats. It was problem unique to the way Dad's body used and broke down the counteragent. Claire immediately went back to using an earlier version, which solved the problem, but Dad had made his decision. He wanted out.  
  
I guess it was only natural that I would be a little scared about the situation, considering what happened at the end. I knew it was different now, that the problems had been corrected, that there was no more madness in the gland. I had even met a couple of the other I-Men from the Agency, but that was different. They weren't my dad. Maybe some of it was nervousness about this mission, this rescue. Could my dad have used this as an excuse for getting a new gland? There was always the risk that the recipients could become addicted to the quicksilver, or rather to using it. So far it hadn't happened -- they were very careful who they chose to receive a gland -- but they all knew it could happen. I wanted this over with and my family back the way it should be.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alyx lay in the brush and snow, looking across the border. There wasn't any real demarcation in this area. No obvious patrols. No fences. Just wilderness. She turned to the person snuggled next to her. "So, what do you think?"  
  
"I think it's fricking cold, that's what I think," Darien said to her in all seriousness.  
  
Alyx laughed. "Poor baby. I'll keep you warm." She moved a bit closer and gave him a quick kiss. Everyone else was back at the small town just a few miles away. Alyx had wanted to scout the best place to sneak across before nightfall. This first leg they were going to do at night, just as a precaution. Once they were far enough across the border they would walk in shifts, day or night, depending on weather. Their goal was to reach that abandoned monastery in two days, then spend a day to recover and revise the plan if necessary. They had the gear to stay in contact with the outside world and would get regular updates on the situation. With Alyx they didn't need to worry about a power source; she could provide the power for any piece of gear they carried.  
  
"This is nuts. We're spies, not a covert ops team," Darien muttered after a moment.  
  
"I really ought to let you read our reports more often. We've been doing stuff like this since Johnson showed up. It's just an extreme version of the snatch and runs you used to do." Alyx turned to look back across the land. Even a good topographical map just wasn't the same as looking at the land itself. She really wished they could do a fly-over -- hell she wished they could just parachute in -- but the Chinese government frowned on strange airplanes in their airspace. They had a habit of shooting first and torturing later. None of them were capable of HALO or low altitude jumps, the only two viable options. Not even she was capable of keeping a plane off radar. So they'd do it the longer but far safer way.  
  
"You guys have been running jobs like this?" Darien asked with surprise. Okay so maybe they didn't often talk details of her work, since it was technically top secret, but still he should have known that.  
  
"Uh, huh," Alyx said, distracted. "Just last month we hit a major drug supplier down in Columbia. Scored some major cash for the Agency." She fiddled with the computer pad in her hand, comparing the map on the screen with the view before her. "Johnson is cheaper than Charlie ever was."  
  
"That doesn't sound right. I mean, I know you guys don't get full funding, but that's more to keep you secret than anything else." He was talking mostly to himself, but she heard him.  
  
"I know, and Manda says something funny is going on, but she hasn't been able to track it down." She tapped a few more keys then shut it down. "Come on, let's grab a couple hours of sleep. We've got a long night ahead of us."  
  
They backed out of the brush and retraced their path to the town. Darien wasn't quite ready to drop the subject of Johnson and the Agency. "I'm starting to really not like this guy."  
  
Alyx snorted. "Careful there. Keep in mind you have stolen property in the back of your head. You could end up working for him yourself."  
  
Darien stopped dead in his tracks. "Please tell me you're joking."  
  
She turned to stand in front of him. "You don't really think Johnson knows we put that gland in your head, do you?"  
  
Darien shook his head, not sure what to think. "You stole the gland."  
  
"Well, duh. Why do you think we did the implantation at my lab?" Alyx said to him with wry smile.  
  
"I... It... Aw, crap." Darien finally managed to say. "You are completely insane." He brought his gloved hands to cup her face. "Completely. Insane."  
  
"And?" She was laughing quietly.  
  
He leaned down and kissed her. It was the only thing he could think of to do, and even after all these years he still enjoyed it. Still found himself willing to lose himself to her, even if only for a stolen moment. "Sleep. We need to get some sleep." He took one of her hands and they continued to walk towards the house they were staying at for the day. "And I'm freezing my ass off out here."  
  
"All right, you wuss. Let's get you inside and warm. If you're good, I may even snuggle with you." Alyx kept her voice serious just to annoy him.  
  
"And who stole a multimillion-dollar gland?" Darien teased right back.  
  
"Does this make me a better thief than you?" she asked with an unexpected bounce to her step.  
  
"Nah, stealing from the government doesn't count, especially if it's from your own boss. 'Sides, 'Maid Marian,' you get caught even more often than I do."   
  
"Hey, 'Robin Hood' that was the first time I'd ever tried to steal anything outside of the Agency's purview. At least I had a back-up plan in place for the melt-down." Alyx countered with a grin. It had been a long time since she'd thought about her first foray into a life of crime. It certainly had not been her, or their, last.  
  
"And now we have our very own band of 'Merry Men'." He paused, thinking. "The world is lucky we're the good guys, busily overthrowing the modern day Prince John and Sheriff of Nottingham. We could be very dangerous if we wanted to be."  
  
"Darien, just think what we could do to Vegas in one night." She grinned and watched as that thought sunk in.  
  
"Well, now I know where our next vacation shall be, but the question is; do we reenact Ocean's Eleven or Robin and the Seven Hoods?"  
  
That got both of them laughing and they were still chuckling over it when they walked into the house and shed their winter clothes. Most everyone was dozing so they found a stray spot without any napping bodies and curled contentedly about one another. It was to be their last peaceful moment for a while.  
  
  
  
Alyx looked down at the computer pad as they walked. They were using a modified version of a GPS tracking system to show their location which was then added to topographical map that showed the location of the monastery. They'd made good time, but they needed a rest and the monastery was the only shelter around for miles. According to their guide it had pretty much been abandoned, except for those brave few willing to risk saying a few prayers there. The Chinese government had gotten even worse than when she was a kid. A lot of the Buddhist monasteries had been destroyed over the years. The fact that this one still existed was astounding. She was looking forward to seeing it.  
  
"We should be able to see the place soon," she said to Chris, who was her scouting partner this time. "It can't be more than a couple of miles at most."  
  
"Good. 'Cause we need a big break. Manda is almost as out of practice as Darien, but he's kept in better shape." Chris commented, his breath steaming out about them.  
  
"Hey, remember that Darien was tied close to home back then. Long distance hikes in the woods were not his specialty," Alyx said as she continued walking. They came out of the trees and looked up at the rock wall a hundred yards before them. The pathway cut into the cliff was impressive. Alyx tipped her head back and looked up. "Holy cow." she muttered.  
  
"No, that's India," Chris said rather offhandedly. "Didn't realize the couple of miles would be straight up."  
  
"Neither did I. When he said it was on the side of a mountain, I didn't think it would be quite this literal." She had to admit that it was quite impressive. "Should we head up or head back?"  
  
"I really don't want to have to climb that twice," Chris said. Suddenly, as he watched, his mom put her hand to her forehead and went to her knees. He rushed to her side. "What's wrong?"  
  
She couldn't answer; the pain was exquisite. She forced herself to close off the light connection she was keeping with the rest of the family and the pain finally eased. She gasped for air and found herself being held by Chris who looked rather worried. "Not me. It's Ben." She cautiously reopened the connection to find the same mind-blinding pain still there and she quickly closed it down. Next she tried only Darien. *What's happened?*  
  
*Alyx? Get back here. Ben's collapsed. We need Chris.* Somehow his mind voice was completely calm.  
  
*On our way,* she sent back and then turned to Chris. "Why now?" she commented to the air as Chris helped her to her feet.  
  
"We've been expecting this," Chris commented as they headed back towards the rest of their group at a trot. "The timing does suck, however."  
  
Alyx was quiet for several minutes and then said something that she knew she should have said long ago. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you guys."  
  
"Don't think that way. Yeah, it was tough. Even tougher after Jess died, but we understand." He reached out and stopped her. *Really. You did what was necessary and we had relatively normal lives because of it. Not one of us feels differently.*  
  
Alyx sighed. "I...." She shook her head.  
  
*We're just glad we got you back,* Chris sent and he tried to send his emotions as well so that she could really understand.  
  
*Me too. Thank you.* She knew telepathy was difficult for him, and she appreciated why he was talking to her that way.  
  
"Can we get moving now? There may not be much we can do, but I, for one, would like to make sure Ben is okay." Chris said this lightly, knowing she was worried enough already.  
  
Alyx nodded and they got moving again. She checked ahead every few minutes, not necessarily speaking to anyone, but just checking over their minds to see their level of concern. While they were all worried, with the exception of Darien, they weren't overly concerned. They had all been through this themselves.  
  
*Manda, we're nearly there. Don't flambe us,* Alyx sent ahead as they neared the place the others were. Just a few minutes later they came out of the trees and brush to where the group had stopped. They'd bundled Ben up in the spare blankets and cleared an area of snow. He was lying with his head in Rose's lap. Other than Darien, she was the only one of them that had no active telepathy, so she would not irritate his mind as badly as Manda would.  
  
"He's come to a couple of times, but he keeps passing back out." She lifted her head to look at Chris. "Kinda like you did, bro."  
  
Chris nodded and dug through his pack for the medical gear he had brought. Alyx waited impatiently while Chris checked him over. Darien came to stand behind her and wrapped his arms about her. "There was no warning. He just dropped."  
  
She leaned back against him. "He'll be okay. He has to be," she said quietly.  
  
"Holy shit," Rose suddenly swore as her hand went to her forehead.  
  
Everyone had pretty much the same reaction, except Darien, who looked about in bewilderment.  
  
"I got it." Alyx said through clenched teeth. Damn, the kid was strong. She imposed shields on Ben from the outside, something she hadn't had to do in years. It took a moment, since she was a bit out of practice, but she finally got them in place and secure. There was still discomfort being broadcast, but she realized it wasn't Ben anymore. "Rose?"  
  
Chris looked at his sister. "It's about damn time."  
  
"What's going on?" Darien asked, trying to keep his voice steady.  
  
"Apparently Ben's not the only one whose powers have decided to kick in." Manda answered, rubbing her forehead.  
  
Chris clarified. "Little sis here has always had the potential for telepathy, but unlike the rest of us, it didn't manifest itself when she hit puberty. Ben's emergence seems to have finally triggered hers as well."  
  
"We need to get these guys inside." Alyx said, going over to the two seated on the ground. "Can you walk, Rose?"  
  
She nodded. "Yeah. Mikey taught me shielding, so it's not too bad."  
  
Alyx supported Ben while Rose got to her feet. He opened his eyes and looked up at her. "Hey there. You back with us?"  
  
He groaned and tried to sit up, but she held him in place. "No you don't. Trust me, you need to rest for a while." She looked over at Darien who knelt down beside them.  
  
"How are you feeling?" Darien asked him.  
  
"Head hurts, but not as bad," he answered, his words slightly slurred.  
  
Alyx looked over at Chris, who nodded reassuringly. "He's about as expected. None of us had as bad a time as you. He should be okay in twenty-four hours or so, barring problems." Chris looked at Ben. "But you need to rest until then, understand?"  
  
Ben only nodded. This was nothing like he'd expected.  
  
Darien scooped him up. "Lead the way."  
  
They grabbed backpacks and the various pieces of gear and, with Chris in the lead, they made their way to the monastery.  
  
None of them really wanted to remember that climb. The pathway was only about two feet wide and very steep, though it was very well maintained. There were obviously quite a few people in the area who visited, just as their guide had suggested.  
  
Their guide had been forced to leave them the day before, after an urgent message from Piotr requested his return. He'd been reluctant to leave them alone and given them all the knowledge he could before going, including rumors of secret passageways in the monastery.  
  
Given the climb and the starkness of the cliff face, they weren't expecting much when they finally reached the top. They were all well and truly surprised. Once they walked in through the rather plain main entrance, they discovered an open courtyard with a stream running through it. While Darien, Chris, and Rose began to set up camp inside one of the buildings, Manda and Alyx went investigating. The courtyard was impressive enough, but outside behind the monastery it was breathtaking. Statuary stood amongst an extensive garden, covered in almost completely undisturbed snow, which extended back to a natural wall that was part of the mountain itself. Out of curiosity, Alyx climbed the wall and looked around. On the other side, the ground fell away into a dry ravine that may have once been a riverbed. Pulling out the computer pad, she oriented it. This must be an offshoot of the main river that had been diverted, for it wasn't marked on her map. She added the feature and climbed back down.  
  
By now she had a killer headache herself. The three of them made their way back inside and helped finish setting up the camp in a room off to one side of the main courtyard that had an enormous fireplace. There was wood stacked nearby and Rose had already gotten it piled on the hearth.  
  
"Hey, Manda. Care to put that odd talent of yours to work and save me the trouble?" Rose was smiling and Manda nodded. Darien actually turned to watch. He'd never actually seen her use this particular talent of hers.  
  
Manda sighed, but walked over to the fireplace. She closed her eyes and took several calming breaths to prepare herself. Her control needed to be perfect. Alyx watched her quietly, knowing that Manda was far better at this than she was. Manda opened her eyes and the logs burst into flame. "Crap. Too much."  
  
Alyx compensated for her and drew off some of the air, causing the flames to die down. "You are out of practice, young lady," Alyx admonished. "You are going to take more field assignments, no matter how much it hurts."  
  
"Yes, mother. Or would that be 'boss'?" She got this odd look for an instant. "But you're right, I am out of practice and I shouldn't be."  
  
"Don't worry about it, sis," Rose said. "Let's just get set up and get some food into us. I'm starved."  
  
"Yes, oh great one. I am yours to command," Manda said with a laugh. They spent the next hour getting settled and actually cooking some food, providing the group with a warm meal for the first time in five days. It might have been a simple stew, but they didn't care.  
  
After dinner, Alyx and Chris checked over the patients again. While Chris ran some tests on Ben, Alyx dealt with Rose and her sudden emergence of powers. "So, what is going on in that head of yours?"  
  
Rose laughed. "Mikey always said I was blocking something, guess he was right." She looked over at Darien. *Right, Mr. Darien?*  
  
Darien twitched and turned to look at her. "I just figured it was my imagination. I mean, you seemed to know things way back then, but you never showed any signs since we met again."  
  
Rose laughed. "I know. I apparently started blocking the ability when Jess died." She shrugged. "He was my father."  
  
"Yes, Rose, he was your father, no matter what else he may have been," Alyx said to her daughter. "Now relax for me, and let's see what we have here."  
  
Rose sighed, but complied. She hadn't had this done since she went through what Ben was going through now.  
  
Alyx was not nearly as good at this as Mikey, but she was the only other one who could even slightly gauge what powers might have kicked in. She was rather surprised to discover that Rose had a weaker version of her own talent. She'd been receptive all this time, and of course had the quicksilver, but she'd been blocking her mental abilities.  
  
"Well, you're a lot more like me than you thought," Alyx said with a smile. "You'll need to practice your shielding. And be prepared to have contact problems. I still do, even after all these years."  
  
"She's got your talent?" Chris asked from beside Ben.  
  
"Much milder. She'll...you'll..." she turned back to Rose. "Probably be a mild telepath and empath, and you'll never have to worry about batteries again. Beyond that..." Alyx shrugged. "You'll just have to wait and see and test yourself."  
  
"Mom, could you come here?" Chris called to her.  
  
Alyx looked at Rose who waved her hand. "Shields, food, rest. I know the routine by now."  
  
Alyx patted her on the shoulder and got up to go over to Chris and Ben. She sat down next to him and brushed the hair off his forehead. "How you feeling?"  
  
"Okay, Mom. That was not fun," he replied, trying to smile. He sounded incredibly tired, which was to be expected.  
  
She turned to Chris and raised one eyebrow. "Well, his telepathy and empathy have kicked in, turned up a notch, but we expected that. That wild talent of his appears to be a bit stronger, but it's hard to judge with that one. It's too different from what I'm used to. His readings are within the norm, but I would suggest an extra day here to rest as a precaution."  
  
Alyx nodded. "If we need to then, yeah, we'll stay an extra day. Our latest intel suggests that nothing has changed. We can't help Dani unless we're at one hundred percent."  
  
Ben struggled to sit up and Chris helped him. "I'm sorry Mom. I didn't mean..."  
  
"Don't, you. We knew this could happen at any time. In fact, the pressure of this adventure may have set it off early. So if anyone is to blame, it would be me," Alyx said to him.  
  
"It was my idea to bring him," Darien said, coming over to them. "That would make it my fault."  
  
"I could have argued about bringing him," Manda added.  
  
"Same here," came from Rose, and Chris shrugged.  
  
"You'd have to blame all of us, Ben." Darien said . "We tend to stick together."  
  
"All right, I get it." Ben felt a little embarrassed.  
  
Rose brought over tea and some of the stew they'd made for dinner. "Eat, kiddo. You need it, even if it doesn't feel like it. Trust me on this."  
  
Everyone else nodded in agreement. "I'll stay with you," Chris said. "You all get some rest. I have a feeling we're going to need it."  
  
  
* 


	5. Chapter 5

*  
  
After sleeping about twelve hours, I woke up feeling much better. I still had a headache, but compared to yesterday this was nothing. I figured I could live with it. I got cleaned up, got some food into me, and then submitted to Chris checking me yet again. He declared me well enough and then called my mom over.  
  
"You need to sleep." he said to her. "He has to learn to do his own shielding, again."  
  
"I know." She turned to me. "Be glad we're pretty much alone out here. This is not going to be fun."  
  
She dropped the shields she'd imposed on me, and every mind in the room was suddenly in mine and all of them knew it. Good thing they were able to quiet their minds enough to keep me from being overwhelmed. I was surprised that my dad even knew about the technique, but then I realized Mom must have taught it to him. I ignored them and focused on finding my center. Back to basics. Ground and center, then rebuild those shields. It took longer than I hoped, but not as long as I feared. Everything seemed the same, yet it was different. Like everything was a bit brighter, a bit more real than it had been. It would take some getting used to.  
  
Mom knew when I was done and nodded in satisfaction. "Good enough. I doubt you'll have trouble holding them now. You've been doing it for long enough. If you have any questions, ask one of us."  
  
Dad came over then and gave me a smile. "Good morning, Ben. Better, I take it?"  
  
"Yes, Dad. I'm fine. Anything I can help with?" I had been sitting on my ass for long enough. I wanted to do something now.  
  
"Actually, yes," Mom answered through a yawn. "Mr. Chou said there were supposedly secret passageways in this building. See if you can find them. Just keep in contact, okay?"  
  
"Sure, Mom. Get some sleep." I could tell she was exhausted and, knowing her, she hadn't slept since we had arrived.  
  
"Now that I know you're okay, I can." She walked over to me and hugged me. "You had me scared for a while there, Ben."  
  
I hugged her just as tightly, realizing again how tiny she was. When did I get so much taller than her? "I had me scared, too," I whispered.  
  
She stepped back and looked at me. She must have seen something, but just shook her head as if she couldn't believe it. "Find those passageways for me. I'll be conscious again in four hours. I expect results."  
  
"Yes ma'am," I said, surprising myself. It wasn't often she used her work voice with me, but I wasn't offended. More like proud. She was treating me like one of the team.  
  
With one last quick hug she headed off to the room we'd picked to camp in and curled up on a pile of blankets. She was asleep within moments. Now I just had to try and find something that might very well not exist.  
  
This main building was two stories tall, with rooms all opening off of the courtyard. These rooms seemed to be mainly individual prayer rooms and it was obvious after poking about in a few that we were not the first people to use the place for shelter. There was an air of peace about the building that was wonderful. It made it difficult for me to understand why anyone would persecute the creators of such a place.  
  
I found the staircase that led up, but it was just more rooms like those below, perhaps less used, but all neat and clean with little dust or blown-in snow. I leaned out one window that overlooked the garden and tried to figure out what felt 'wrong' about this place. I mean, it was a monastery, right? Therefore people lived here, right? Yet, there was nothing resembling kitchens, or private rooms, or storage, or anything that I would have expected based on the little I knew.  
  
All these rooms were pretty much open to the elements and extremely cold this time of the year. You'd have to be damn tough to live in these rooms for five months of freezing temperatures. Maybe the monks didn't abandon the place, maybe they all froze to death.  
  
I shook my head at that thought.  
  
All right, Mom asked me to solve the problem for a reason. Which meant that the rest of them had tried with what abilities and equipment they had and found nothing. So, if they wanted me and my wild talent to solve it, I should probably stop trying so hard. That was the weirdest thing about it. The harder I tried to use it, the less likely it was to work.  
  
Instead of actively searching I began to wander wherever my feet chose to take me. I admired the carvings on the walls, the remains of artwork that had faded over the years. I made my way back downstairs and admired the stream running through the building. The water was incredibly pure and came from a natural spring not far from the monastery itself. At some point the monks had diverted the flow of water into and through the building, possibly for a drinking water supply, perhaps just because it sounded nice.  
  
I followed the stream out the far side of the building where it emptied into a pool. I stared at the pool for several minutes before I realized that it should not be maintaining a steady level. The water was constantly flowing into it, so it should be overflowing, unless it was being drained off to somewhere below.  
  
These people were very intelligent. It was just a matter of solving the riddle. I wandered back in and over to the staircase that led up on this side of the building. Down, I kept telling myself, they must have gone down into the mountain, but how?  
  
I leaned against one of the columns that supported the second story and felt something shift behind my back. Turning about, I pressed one of the bas reliefs carved into the column and it moved. Pressing harder, I heard something shift and scrape behind me and turned to see a section of wall open. I walked over and stuck my head inside. It was a dimly lit stairwell and I decided to check it out. No need to disturb everyone else for a possible dead end. I searched about a bit and set a piece of wood in the doorway to keep it from closing completely. I've seen too many movies where exactly that happened and then the poor schmuck had to walk through every nasty thing the writers could think of to get back out, if they got out at all. I really didn't need to live a cliche.  
  
The stairs led down to an open area with several wooden tables and chairs that were still in astonishingly good condition. This was the real monastery. The dim light wasn't quite enough for me and I wished I had my mom's eyesight. To her this would be bright as day. I looked around and found the kitchens. The chimneys were ingenious, and from what I could tell the smoke would be almost completely dispersed as it rose, thus keeping this place from being spotted by the smoke in the air. I found more stairs going down, which led to the small rooms that the monks must have lived in as well as more rooms that were for worshipping.  
  
There was more artwork down here, as well as the remains of the previous tenants. Abandoned clothing, bedding, cookware, the stuff you 'd expect to find left behind when a large group is forced to leave in a hurry. I found where the water from the pool above went. They had running water in the kitchens, as well as a remarkable bathing room. There were several pools full of water that were constantly renewed, like above. There were fireplaces as well -- perhaps it doubled as a primitive sauna? Then I realized the trick. Since the water was spring water it maintained a constant, if chilly temperature. You start the fires and heat the rocks. Once hot, you drop them into the pool, which would eventually heat the water. Simple and effective.  
  
I walked about a bit more, searching, and then stopped myself. Searching wouldn't work. So I began to wander again. I noticed that my eyes had adjusted to the light and I could see much better now, although the colors seemed a bit washed out. I eventually ended up at what seemed to be a dead end and looked about for a moment. Remembering the trigger for the door upstairs, I found the same figure on the wall here and pressed it. The entire wall slid open, revealing a long sloping tunnel. I had the sudden feeling that this was important.  
  
I dug through my pockets and came up with, nothing. Crap. Well, I'd just have to remember where it was, now wouldn't I? I walked back out to the main area at the foot of the first set of stairs and sent to Chris, *I found something.*  
  
*Where are you?* Chris asked me.  
  
*Downstairs.* That got his attention.  
  
*W...w...what?*  
  
I hadn't known you could stutter mind-to-mind, and I laughed. *I'll meet you at the right-hand staircase.*  
  
I headed up, meeting more than just Chris when I shoved the door open. The wood had been a good idea after all.  
  
"Good work," my dad said.  
  
"We'll check it out." Chris said for himself, Manda, and Rose.  
  
"Wait." They paused. "I found another door that leads into a tunnel. I didn't follow it, but I can show you where it is."  
  
Chris nodded. "Maybe you better." He got this faraway look in his eyes. "We'll let Mom sleep. She should be perfectly safe up here."  
  
"Damn straight. She was exhausted," Rose said in agreement.  
  
Together we walked down into the dim light of below and I showed them everything I had discovered.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alyx woke slowly, with arms wrapped about her. She could feel warm air being blown gently on the back of her neck as Darien lay dozing with her. She realized she'd slept longer than she had intended and that only happened when she truly needed the sleep. It was nice to lie here with him curled about her, and she finally felt warm. That was about the only disadvantage of this place. Even with the fireplace, the room never really got warm with the open windows letting the cold air blow right in.  
  
Shifting a bit, she found one of his hands and wrapped hers about it.  
  
"So you're finally awake," he whispered just behind her ear. "We were beginning to wonder."  
  
"I was tired. It happens on occasion," Alyx commented, rolling over to face him. "Good..." She thought for a moment. "Evening. Where is everyone?"  
  
"Downstairs getting warm and clean," he answered with a straight face, waiting for her reaction.  
  
"Down.... You guys have been busy. I take it Ben was successful." She snuggled closer, not wanting to move just yet. This was not nearly as much fun as one would think considering she'd gone to sleep still in her heavy winter coat and mittens. Even with all of that, and several blankets, she'd barely been warm enough. She'd just been too tired to care.  
  
"Very successful. The guys who built this place were amazing." He kissed her then, warming her even more. "Come on, there's stuff you need to see. Including what might be a back door."  
  
"Back door?" she shivered a bit when Darien threw off the covers and moved away. She noticed that her stuff was all that was left in the room and that the fire was nothing but embers.  
  
As they packed up her stuff, Darien said, "I was supposed to wake you a while ago, but...well...You looked so peaceful, I decided to join you instead."  
  
Alyx checked her internal time clock and discovered she'd slept an extra couple of hours. "I probably needed it anyway."  
  
"I know you did. You've been pushing yourself too hard again," Darien said with his arms full of blankets.  
  
She shrugged her pack over one shoulder. "Same old, same old. Now show me this 'downstairs' you guys found."  
  
Darien led the way across the courtyard. With his elbow, he pushed the bas relief that was the trigger for the door. "Your palace awaits, or something like that."  
  
Alyx poked her head in the doorway and adjusted her eyes. Walking down the stairs with Darien behind her she found some of her children sitting along one of the wooden tables eating and going over whatever intel they had managed to collect during her unconsciousness.  
  
"Hey, Mom," Rose called out as she neared. "Feeling better?"  
  
"I'd feel better still with some food and a shower," Alyx said with a sigh.  
  
"Food coming right up," Chris said, filling a bowl they'd scrounged from the kitchen. It was more stew, but she was too hungry to care. "And you can have your turn in the bath when Manda is done."  
  
Alyx paused, her spoon hanging in the air. "Bath? Did you say bath?"  
  
"Uh, huh," Darien said, sitting beside her on the long bench. "Even warm water."  
  
"Ah, gods, don't tease me about this. Really? A bath?" Alyx was not believing this at all.  
  
*Yes Mom. A bath.* Manda's voice was filled with pure contentment. *Give me twenty and it's yours.*  
  
"Thank you, whatever gods helped create this place," Alyx said to the ceiling.  
  
That got everyone laughing for a few minutes.  
  
"Dare mentioned a back door," Alyx said when she finished eating.  
  
"We think," Rose said. "We thought you might want to check it out, since you had the nap."  
  
"Once I'm human," she said, nodding. "Where is our good luck charm, anyway?"  
  
"Here, Mom." Ben poked his head out of a side room, where he'd been admiring the engineering of the fireplace.  
  
"Can we get some more light in here?" Alyx asked suddenly, getting to her feet and going to Ben. Behind her someone turned on some more lanterns. "And none of you noticed this?" She waved her hand at Ben.  
  
Chris came over and looked at his younger brother, noticing what Alyx had. "Ah, sh... No we didn't. It must have come on gradually."  
  
Ben got this really worried look on his face. "What's wrong?"  
  
"Feel up to another set of lessons?" Alyx asked him.  
  
"Now?" he just wanted to know what was going on.  
  
"Yes, now. It's important, Ben," Chris said.  
  
Ben nodded stiffly.  
  
"Close your eyes and relax. We do this mind-to-mind these days," Alyx said, laying a hand against the side of his face.  
  
He wasn't sure what was going on, but he did as he was asked. He felt her inside his mind.  
  
*Pay attention, love. This is important.*  
  
So he did. She did...something and he watched/felt her do it.  
  
*Now you. Do just what I did.*  
  
Still not quite understanding, he complied. Copying what she had done. He felt weird. Like he was not himself anymore.  
  
*Perfect. Now here's the rest. Go over it later.* She dumped the rest of the information into his head just like she'd done for his father a week ago. Then she slid back out of his mind.  
  
"Okay, now drop the quicksilver," she said aloud.  
  
His eyes flew open and he realized his eyesight had gone to quicksilver sight, just like he'd experienced a few times in his life. This was not part of the plan. Not what was supposed to happen.  
  
"Ben. Relax and use the information your mom gave you. Freak later," Darien said to his frightened son. He wasn't feeling too steady himself. This was completely unexpected.  
  
Ben did the best he could and managed to relax after a couple of minutes. The triggers for the quicksilver were almost instinctive, and once he stopped fighting with himself he was easily able to let it flake away. "Ummm. Did I have Phase II done when I wasn't paying attention?"  
  
Everyone laughed.  
  
"What's going on?" Manda said as she walked into the room.  
  
"Ben has decided to join the ranks of those who can quicksilver," Rose answered in a wry tone.  
  
"Nuh uh," Manda said in complete disbelief.  
  
"Uh huh." Rose tossed right back. "Show her, Benny."  
  
Ben looked a bit nervous, but realized he had to try this sometime. He held out his arm and, after taking a deep breath, successfully quicksilvered it. Much to Manda's astonishment.  
  
"But how?"  
  
Alyx turned to Chris. "Must be because I had my full powers when I had Ben."  
  
"Good a guess as anything. You must have passed the Phase II trigger on to him as well." Chris was staring off into the distance, thinking. "I'm going to have to do some research on this."  
  
"You know what this means don't you?" Darien said quietly.  
  
"What, Darien?" Rose asked him for everyone.  
  
"Dani has fully active quicksilver," he pointed out.  
  
"Aw, crap," they pretty much said as one.  
  
"So now what do we do?" Rose asked.  
  
"Same thing as before. Get her out of there," Darien answered. "The sooner, the better."  
  
  
  
"You sure you want to do this?" Darien asked, shining the light down the dark tunnel. "What about Ben?"  
  
"Dare, he's fine. Rose can run him through the training exercises, and they need to sleep anyway," Alyx said with a sigh. "I know it's tough, but he needs a chance to get used to what he can do now without his parents hovering over him."  
  
As she stepped into the darkness and began to walk she pulled out her computer pad and added the tunnel to the map. Assuming it ran straight and exited somewhere the other side of the mountain it would dump them.... She shook her head. If this was right, it would cut two days off their walk time, at least. "Dare, our surprisingly brilliant son may just have shortened our trip. And given us an escape route." She showed him the computer pad.  
  
"Is this right?" he asked as he looked over her work.  
  
"We'll have to see, now won't we?" Alyx said, taking back the computer pad.  
  
They walked in silence for a while. The tunnel was fairly clear considering it hadn't had a visitor in who knew how long. It was dry, with minimal dust and, thankfully, few cobwebs. Those they did find were lacking owners. It also wasn't nearly as cold as they had thought it would be. It wasn't long before they had both peeled off their heavy coats and stuffed them in the pack they had brought.  
  
"Okay bub, you're worried about something. Talk," Alyx said, breaking the silence and actually startling him, they'd been quiet for so long.  
  
"I can't believe I didn't notice," Darien muttered.  
  
"No one did. No one expected it," Alyx reminded him. "I thought I saw something earlier, but I figured it was lack of sleep on my part."  
  
"You realize that we went and did exactly what the Official wanted all those years ago. They don't even have to spend money on Phase II. The kids'll do it by themselves." He started running his hand through his hair. "What about the girls? Will this happen to them?"  
  
"Probably? I can't even tell you why it happened to Ben." She turned slightly to look at him. "I never intended this to happen."  
  
"Damn. That's not what I meant. I'm not blaming you. Not blaming anyone." He moved closer to her and threw and arm over her shoulders. "I'd rather he had a bit more time to be a kid is all."  
  
"He'll have all the time he needs. No one is going to make him do something he's not ready for." She chuckled. "He's gonna be trouble with the girls. Thought he was bad enough with those blue eyes, but he's gonna be devastating with the silver."  
  
"Oh, really? And why would you think this?" Darien asked with a smile.  
  
"'Cause his dad is," Alyx answered honestly. "I haven't decided which I like better, the silver or your sweet brown." She leaned against him as they walked. "How are you doing, with the gland and all?"  
  
"Fine. If it had been like this the first time..." he began, but she interrupted.  
  
"You would have been gone. Arnaud would be dead. There would have been an amazing number of mysterious bank robberies before you retired to a beach to chase pretty girls in bikinis," Alyx stated truthfully. "Everything would be different, and we would not be walking down this dark tunnel right now. Hell, I don't even want to think where I might be right now."  
  
"You're probably right, about me anyway," Darien said with a grin.  
  
"Watch your head," Alyx suddenly said, and Darien ducked just in time to avoid the newly lowered ceiling. The tunnel took a slight jog to the right; Alyx pulled out the computer pad and made the adjustment.  
  
"This is uncomfortable," Darien commented as he walked hunched over through the tunnel.  
  
"I've been expecting it," Alyx muttered. "If you notice, the walls aren't as neatly finished as they were."  
  
Now that she had mentioned it, he did notice. "How much longer?"  
  
"If it comes out where I think, a few hours." Alyx said, looking up from the computer pad to him. "We are walking through a mountain range after all."  
  
"Oh, goody. This is going to be fun," Darien complained. He knew it wouldn't be long before his back began to cramp.  
  
"Just wait. I expect the tunnel to get lots smaller before we get to the end," Alyx told him with a snicker.  
  
"Wonderful. Just wonderful."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Okay, kiddo. You need to get some practice before getting some sleep," Rose said to Ben as they sat in the main room.  
  
"Shouldn't Mom be running me through this stuff?" I asked her with no small amount of trepidation in my voice.  
  
"Normally I would agree, but on this occasion I think she did the right thing." Rose quicksilvered her hand and waited for Ben to attempt to do the same. "Her emotional state would probably be too big an influence on you, and the one thing we've been very careful to do is not tie the quicksilver to emotion."  
  
"Why is that?" I asked as I copied what she did.  
  
"'Cause it's a pain in the ass, that's why." Rose said, surprising me with her crass choice of words. Usually they tried to avoid swearing around me. She must have caught on to what I was thinking. "Darien had to deal with it being tied to emotion and adrenaline levels. Some of the stories are amusing, but others aren't. We have secondary protocols set up for self-preservation, but main control has to be conscious. You don't want to quicksilver just because you're nervous your first day of college do you?"  
  
I shook my head, feeling a bit overwhelmed. I wasn't ready for this responsibility yet. And yes, I knew that quicksilver as well as my other gifts were a major responsibility.  
  
"Look, little bro, as far as this family is concerned you just grew up. You are now at full power and it's just a matter of training to see exactly how far you can push it. Until you hit that 'wall' you can't go beyond, we won't know exactly how strong you are." The entire time she was talking she kept me running through the quicksilver training. From large to small. From external, quicksilvering the bowl or table, to just simply making things frosty. I could feel the pattern Mom had set in my mind, so following what she was doing turned out to be easy.  
  
It was work, though, and after about a half an hour I was beginning to feel the effects. I mean, I knew it was work, but Mom, and more recently Dad, made it look so easy. "This was not part of my plan," I grumbled.  
  
"The best laid plans of mice and men and all that." She rubbed her forehead. "Now I know how Mom felt. Makes me wish I was an ordinary telepath."  
  
"What's it like? Mom's tried to explain it to me, but I still don't quite get it," I asked her, hoping to distract her both from her pain and my training.  
  
"I don't know if I can. I just feel...everything. Suddenly even the wood of this table and the rocks of the walls are 'alive', giving off energy that I can sense. I can tell that I won't be able to interact on the same level as Mom. I seriously doubt I'll be able to do that 'air shield' trick Mom does." She shook her head. "I can't feel to that fine a degree. Mom can feel air molecules. However..." She trailed off. On the table, the bowl began to rattle and then lifted off and hung shakily in the air for a moment before falling back with a clatter. "Urf. That's gonna take some practice." She looked up at me. "That's part of why Mom and Darien volunteered to check out the tunnel. They didn't want to embarrass you by worrying while you practiced."  
  
I shrugged. "Mom and Dad are cool. They wouldn't interfere too much."  
  
"True, but they'd want to. That emotion thing again." She tapped the table top with her finger. "We've had it easy, training-wise. Mike had already taught Mom, so he knew what was needed when we started to show our abilities. Though Manda threw him quite a bit. You do know he trained Mom, right?"  
  
I nodded. Oh yeah, I knew that story. I knew how Mom got involved with the Agency, how she met Dad. How what they did to her nearly killed her and did cause the deaths of dozens of others. Dad told me that it took years before my mom felt it was safe to use her powers at all. What they did to her all those years ago came back to haunt them. Yeah, they succeeded, but at what cost? Guess the world should be lucky that she's as good a person as she is, because if she decided to use her powers to get what she wanted, to fulfill her every whim, there wasn't much that could be done to stop her.  
  
I then began to wonder if this, me and my brother and sisters, were the ultimate goal. What they did to my mom has resulted in a segment, small as of yet, of the population having extraordinary powers. Powers that could be passed on to their children. Provided the abilities didn't weaken in succeeding generations, it wouldn't be that long before we, or rather they, would become a significant portion of the population. And we now knew that there was no longer a dependence on science to realize the full potential.  
  
Mom used to joke that mankind had played god all those years ago and ended up with more than they ever bargained for; her.  
  
But it wasn't just her anymore. It was all of us.  
  
I could only wonder what the future would bring.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Darien stood up straight with a groan. The tunnel had finally opened back up and he was eternally grateful for it. Alyx moved up behind him and began to rub the muscles of his lower back. He sighed as the cramps eased. "Do that forever and I am yours."  
  
"Does that mean if I stop I have to give the ring back?" Alyx said as she continued to work on his poor back.  
  
"Smart-ass," he muttered at her.  
  
The last couple of miles had been nasty. The hand-hewn rock had devolved into a natural passageway that was tight, low-ceilinged, and generally uncomfortable. There had been places they'd had to squeeze through, even going so far as to empty the pack partially to fit it through. Good thing Darien was still in good shape or he might not have made it through at all in several places. Both of them had scrapes and cuts from some of the passages. But that had been the worst of it. The passage had opened back out into a semi-natural tunnel with more than enough clearance for him to stand.  
  
"Better?" she asked him, distracted.  
  
"Ummm, yeah. What do you see?" He knew that tone of voice.  
  
"Not see, smell. Fresh air. We're near the end," Alyx said, moving past him.  
  
"Good. I need a break," Darien commented as he followed her.  
  
"We still have to go all the way back," Alyx said, a bit dryly.  
  
"Don't remind me. Please," he groaned.  
  
Alyx stopped before him. "Well, what have we here?"  
  
Darien looked at the solid blank wall before them in dismay. "A dead end. Damn."  
  
"Nope." She took one of his hands and held it near the wall. "Feel."  
  
It was just barely noticeable, but it was a breeze. "Fresh air.''  
  
She nodded. "Our door." She turned and looked about and Darien did the same. They knew what to look for now, and after a couple of minutes Alyx crowed, "Got it." With a grinding of rock on rock, the door canted open. Alyx carefully moved to the doorway and peered outside. Darien stood behind her and looked over her head.  
  
"Anything?"  
  
"Not nearby. Let's check it out." Alyx slipped through the doorway and outside into the night.  
  
After a moment's searching, Alyx found a stray branch to keep the door from closing entirely, then walked out into the night air. It took about half a second to decide that it was very, very, cold out and that it might be prudent to put their coats and gloves back on. The doorway was partially sheltered by a rock wall which kept it from being seen unless you were standing in just the correct spot. Once they were bundled up, they made their cautious way out past the wall. They dropped to the ground almost immediately and crawled forward through the brush to verify what they had seen.  
  
"How close are we?" Darien whispered to her. She dug in the pack and pulled out both the computer pad and a pair of binoculars for him.  
  
"Half mile or so. Damn, this is near-perfect." She rolled onto her back and changed her eyesight to look for energy signatures. "Hot shit. We're inside their initial perimeter security."  
  
"There's not a lot of movement down there, but I think they have people and dogs patrolling." Darien commented as he looked through the glasses.  
  
"Sounds about right. Yeah, I can see them now. Looks like they patrol closer to the building itself." She suddenly quicksilvered and after a moment Darien followed suit.  
  
*Spoke too soon on that one,* she sent to him.  
  
Less than a hundred feet away, a rather heavily armed and heavily dressed gentleman walked by with a rather vicious looking dog on a leash. The dog paused and looked up the hillside to their location. Darien felt Alyx do ... something and then the dog whined and moved on. When they were well out of range Alyx said quietly, "I miss this."  
  
"I thought you did this for a living," Darien commented with a small laugh.  
  
"I meant with you, silly. I miss working with you. It's just not as much fun," Alyx said, looking down at the installation.  
  
"It's been, what, almost ten years since I left and you just now mention it?" Darien also was watching the place. With what he'd been doing the last several years, he was eminently qualified to break into this place. "I've gotten more experience breaking into places like this since I left the Agency that I ever got while working for them."  
  
"I know. Weird, huh?" Alyx looked over the entire valley that the installation was nestled in. The valley was one of those perfect bowls that were sometimes hidden in mountain ranges and had probably once been grazing land for the locals' herds. It was remote, well protected, and huge. Alyx keyed in every bit of information she could think of or guess at. This was not going to be easy.  
  
"We need to get back," Darien said resting a hand on her back. They were lying close enough together that, even invisible, they each knew where the other was.  
  
"I want to try something first," Alyx said. The she closed her eyes and focused on Dani. The range was at her extreme, especially if she were deep underground, but she thought it worth trying anyway.  
  
*Dani?* she sent to the tentative contact she'd made.  
  
*Who... Wha... Mom?* Dani's mind voice sounded very weak, distorted. *Mom!*  
  
*Easy, Dani.* Alyx tried to comfort her daughter. *Report.*  
  
*I'm drugged to the nines with inhibitors and sedatives. Kept under twenty-four hour guard,* she sent, with anger now tingeing her words.  
  
*Quicksilver?* Alyx asked her.  
  
*Untouched, but the whole place is rigged with thermals.* A hint of terror then crept into her voice. *They're pumping me full of fertilization drugs. They want to harvest.*  
  
*As we suspected. How long ago did they start?* Alyx tried to ease her mind.  
  
*Five days,* Dani replied.  
  
*Dani, can you hold out for a bit yet? We need to go back and get the rest of our group before we attempt a rescue.* Alyx would rush the place now if it was necessary, but was hoping to have the entire group together to do this.  
  
*How long? My temper is wearing thin, and I'd rather die that give them access to my genes.* Dani sent back her anger coming back to the fore.  
  
*Forty-eight hours at most,* Alyx sent to her.  
  
*That I can do,* she sent back with relief. *What took Johnson so long?*  
  
*Johnson doesn't know,* Alyx sent. Darien's touch on her shoulder warned of potential trouble. *I have to go. I'll try to maintain a light link, but there are some distance concerns.*  
  
*Go. Get back as soon as you can,* Dani urged her, then broke her end of the link.  
  
Alyx came back to herself and whispered, "Dani's drugged, but okay. We need to get back."  
  
"You bet we do." His hand appeared for a moment pointing down the hillside where several of the patrolling guards had converged and were talking, pointing up the hill towards their location. "Time for a strategic retreat."  
  
Without argument, Alyx moved and they made their way back to the tunnel entrance, not feeling entirely safe until the stone door had shut behind them.  
  
"Damn. Forgot how much I hate that part." Darien let out his breath and dropped the quicksilver. "Although I have to admit this new gland is nifty. Ummm. You planning on returning?"  
  
"What? Oh, sorry." She let the quicksilver fall away. "Just making sure they didn't track us to the door. I want the element of surprise when we come back." She shrugged out of the coat and gloves. "You ready to make some time? We need to get back ASAP."  
  
Darien groaned. His back was not going to enjoy this, and then they'd be doing it again to get back to here.  
  
Alyx caught his look of anticipated discomfort. "You could wait here, but it may be twelve hours or more before we head back."  
  
He shook his head. "I'm in. Right now I'm envying you. You barely had to bend over."  
  
"One of the rare occasions my height has been an advantage," Alyx laughed. "Come on, I want this over with."  
  
They got moving, and even with the difficulties they made it back in half the time.  
  
  
* 


	6. Chapter 6

*  
  
As Alyx and Darien neared the end of the tunnel she probed ahead to see who, if anyone, was awake. She was surprised to find Chris and Manda conscious. *Hey, kiddies. We're back.*  
  
*With good news I hope,* Manda sent back with only a hint of concern.  
  
*Good enough,* Alyx returned. *Be there momentarily.*  
  
"Do they ever sleep?" Darien asked her when her focus returned to him.  
  
"They're worried. Just like we are," Alyx said to him.  
  
"Some of us are in pain." Darien groaned. Not only was his back killing him, but he had stood up when he shouldn't have a couple of times when his back had decided to cramp, and now had a nifty goose egg on the top of his head.  
  
"We'll give them the info we have, let Chris check that skull of yours, and then get you in a hot bath to loosen up what's left of your back," Alyx said with sympathy. He'd knocked himself to his knees once, he'd whacked his head so hard. Alyx was pretty sure he was okay, but wanted Chris to check him to make certain. Within minutes they were in the main room and trading information. Alyx handed over the computer pad with all the information she had.  
  
Manda looked at it, her eyes widening. "Is this correct?"  
  
"Yes," Alyx answered as she played assistant to Chris as he checked Darien's head. "Think you can work with it and the schematics and come up with something while I get Dare human again?"  
  
"Oh, yes," Manda's voice was filled with the joy of a tech-head being fed the all the info she could ever want. "What's wrong with Darien?"  
  
"Well, no concussion, at least. Though I imagine he has one hell of a headache," Chris said putting away his equipment.  
  
"Thanks, Chris," Darien said, but Chris just waved his hand like it was no big deal. "Now to fix my back."  
  
"Hot water. Go soak for an hour. That's about the best suggestion I can make," Chris stated flatly.  
  
"Your back?" Manda asked, glancing up from the computer.  
  
"Look at the tunnel specs," Alyx said to her. "You guys are just going to love it."  
  
Manda looked over the information and groaned. "Well, it's still better than two to three days overland." She looked over at Darien and Alyx. "Go, we'll want to get moving in a few hours. I'll wake the others."  
  
"Yes, ma'am," Alyx said with a mock salute. "C'mon, old man. Let's get you put back together before we torture you again."  
  
"Old man. I'll show you old man," Darien grouched as he went after Alyx, who burst out laughing.  
  
When they had left the room Manda turned to Chris. "You'd think they were kids."  
  
He laughed. "Yeah. Ain't it great?"  
  
Manda shook her head and laughed. "Wake up Ben and Rose. Mom will expect results when she gets back."  
  
  
Alyx lifted her hands out of the water. "That should be warm enough." She turned to look at Darien, who groaned as he stripped.  
  
"Maybe I'm getting to old for this?" he asked her as limped over to the bathing pool and lowered himself in with a hiss. "Ah, more than warm enough. Do I want to know how you managed it?"  
  
"Just my version of Manda's talent," Alyx answered, trailing her fingers in the water. "And you'll never be too old."  
  
He brushed a damp hand along her face and she closed her eyes like always. "What are you thinking about?"  
  
"Trying not to," she answered, her eyes still closed. "I need to get upstairs."  
  
"No," he said, and her eyes flew open.  
  
"No?"  
  
"No. You are going to relax , allow those overly-intelligent children of yours to do their jobs, and give yourself a break." He somehow kept her from moving away. She was going to argue so he tried to forestall it. "For an hour, please."  
  
For a moment she debated just getting up and leaving anyway, but instead she nodded. "One hour."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
I was still yawning and rubbing my eyes when I got to the main room and sat down at the table. Rose didn't look much better. Both Manda and Chris looked way too awake, but I took the cup of tea they offered me and drank it down. I could smell food cooking and my stomach rumbled it's need for sustenance.  
  
"Jeeze, Ben. Train that thing, would you?" Manda commented with a smile. "We've got some info for you to look at." She pushed the computer pad over to me and I perused the information as I drank the tea and then ate the food that was placed in front of me.  
  
"So we can get past the outer perimeter security, but we still have to get in the Lab itself and then out again," I said aloud. "Where's Mom and Dad?" I asked and at the same time I mentally went looking for them.  
  
"Don't," Chris said, and I looked at him in confusion. "Trust me, now is not the time to go eavesdropping on your parents."  
  
"Oh," I said. I'm not a fool. I had a good idea why Chris didn't want me to contact them, but as I've said before, I like my parents the way they are. "Okay. What do you want me to do?"  
  
Rose looked at the information over my shoulder. "Ugly. Do we know where Dani is?"  
  
Manda shook her head. "Not definitely. Mom thinks several levels underground."  
  
"We're not going to walk in the front door are we? I mean, that would be nuts." I looked at each of them. "Wouldn't it?"  
  
"We haven't come up with anything else. We figured Mom would be able to defeat the security system and find Dani's location." Manda answered.  
  
Rose looked over the display again. "There's got to be a back door. There's always a back door."  
  
"Maybe Mom or Darien can find it, 'cause we haven't found it yet," Chris commented, tapping the table with a finger.  
  
"What about the river?" I suddenly asked, without quite knowing why.  
  
"What about it?" Rose said, sitting down next to me.  
  
I shrugged. It seemed like the thing to say even if I wasn't quite sure why.  
  
"Maybe..." Manda made some adjustments to the display. "I wish we had the tri-d rig with us," she muttered in complaint.  
  
I had an idea. Getting up from the table, I went digging through one of the packs and came back with Jase's newest toy. Digging out a connector, I hooked the computer pad to the image generator and, with a little fudging, I was able to project the computer image across the room.  
  
"Does that help?"  
  
They all stared at me.  
  
"What made you think of that?" Chris asked me.  
  
"Zoe asked Jase if it could be used this way. I thought it might be worth trying," I answered truthfully. I was just glad it had worked.  
  
Manda tapped some commands into the computer pad; the image changed, showing the schematics and layout of the building, some of which was based on assumptions, and the blueprints we had garnered of the power plant. The power plant was not directly connected to the installation, was about four levels underground, and was separated by about two hundred yards from the installation itself.  
  
I looked at the images for several minutes while the others began to argue about different options on how to get in. Something tickled the back of my mind. Something that I should be seeing, and yet wasn't.  
  
"Hey, guys. Any luck?" my mom asked as she walked into the room.  
  
"How's Darien feeling?" Chris asked.  
  
"Better on all counts. Some aspirin and hot water took care of the worst of it. He'll be along shortly." She moved to the display hanging in the air, looking distracted. "How do they get the power to the Lab?"  
  
I jumped. "That's what's been bugging me. The power lines. Where are they?"  
  
"Ummm," Manda said as she ran through the images. "Good question."  
  
"We know they kept the power plant and the lab separate for a reason, probably security. Guys working in the power plant may not ever see the inside of the lab," Rose commented as she thought about it. "There has to be a power conduit somewhere, and it's probably fairly large for maintenance and repairs."  
  
"Then that should be our way in," Darien said as he walked into the room. "Hey, Ben." He came over beside me and rested a hand on my shoulder.  
  
"Hey, Dad," I replied. "But how do we get into the power plant?"  
  
"You tell us," he said to me.  
  
I got to my feet and walked over to the display hanging in the air. I could see the main Lab building and I could see the underground layout of the power plant, but there was no obvious entrance for it. I pointed. "Here."  
  
No one questioned me, just tried to figure out what I had discovered. I noticed Mom had that look that meant she was searching through the information she had in her mind. "They had several storage sheds around the area. Well, I thought they were storage sheds...they could very well be entrances. They were heavy duty, permanent structures, if a bit small." She came back to herself. "We'll need to do some recon." She looked at me. "Good work, all of you. Pack up essentials only. This is our fall-back position."  
  
Without complaint, we began to do exactly that, dividing up the work as if we had done this hundreds of times before with this same group of people. Within in an hour we were ready to make our way through that tunnel.  
  
All I can say about that walk was that it was a good thing none of us are claustrophobic. It got exceedingly tight in places, and all of us, except my mom, were miserable with backaches by the time we got to the other end and it opened back out. We spent thirty or so minutes getting the cramps out and prepping what we'd need to do a little scouting. My mom took over, like always. Makes sense -- she's got the most experience, with my dad second, although his experience has a bit more variety to it. Mom may have never planned on being an intelligence agent, but she did it amazingly well. My dad...well, cat-burglar, turned agent, turned security expert for a living. He had an interesting resume.  
  
"Rose, Manda, and Chris, you stay here try and contact Dani. Chris, see if you can come up with something to counteract the effects of the inhibitor and sedative. We need her functional to get her out. See if you can get more than just a general location on her." She turned to look at me. "Ben, Dare, we are going scouting. It's nearly dawn. I want to see what we can see in the daylight. Maybe..." She shook her head. "Let's just see what we can find."  
  
No one argued. I was a bit stunned. She wanted me to scout with them? She must be nuts. My dad must have caught my nervousness.  
  
"Remember capture the flag with Hobbes?" he asked me with a hand on my shoulder.  
  
I nodded. Hobbes had taught me and the twins all sorts of things in the guise of common kids games. You should see our version of 'tag'.  
  
"Same principle. Just remember that now you can go invisible." He handed me a pair of binoculars and one of the computer pads.  
  
I noticed Mom had one as well, I guess so the we could each add our own observations.  
  
"I'll handle communications and cover our tracks," she said as she pressed the release for the door. She turned back to the others. "See if you can get any updated info. It's reasonably secure here, just be careful. No outgoing signals except to sats."  
  
"Mother-hen. We do know what we're doing," Rose said with a smile. "Go. Scout. We'll do our jobs; you do yours."  
  
Mom sighed. "Sorry, habit. I'm used to working with thickheaded dolts."  
  
Manda laughed. "You should hear what they say about you."  
  
"I can imagine," she said dryly. "Come on, boys. Let's go play in the snow."  
  
I followed them out the door and quicksilvered when I saw them do the same. My mom was outlined with a silvery blue glow that shifted and reached out from herself. My dad was a far more contained golden orange halo. I wondered what color I appeared to be.  
  
*You're blue. A bit darker than myself.* my mom said into my head. *Without the weird energy effects I generate. If you watch it'll look like I'm touching everything I walk by.*  
  
She was right. It looked like she was checking everything as she moved past it. Making contact just long enough to identify what was what and then move on. No wonder she always knew where I was in the house. She was constantly checking her environment. I wondered if it was conscious.  
  
Dad had taken point, leading the way around the bowl of the valley, being careful not to disturb anything if it could be helped. The slightest bump would send snow cascading off of a branch, making it obvious that something was passing by. We didn't want to attract any attention if we could help it. Mom warned us of the location of patrolling guards. We were between security perimeters, so although we were cautious we were not overly concerned about booby traps.  
  
We made our way to the far end of the valley where the 'storage sheds' were located. There were four of them, but none of them really caught my interest. Instead, my eyes kept getting drawn back to an odd outcropping of rock.  
  
*Mom?*  
  
*Yeah. Whatcha got?* she sent back.  
  
I sent an image of the outcropping I spotted and she paused. *I just have a feeling about it.*  
  
*Let's check it out. Dare?* I realized she was keeping the three of us in contact. We could each hear what the other two were sending. Saved time.  
  
*On it. I can get us pretty close.* He maneuvered us at an angle down the hillside towards the outcropping. We eventually ended up burying ourselves in a thicket that pretty much hid us from view as we looked the thing over.  
  
*Where's the snow?* my dad asked.  
  
He was right -- it was the only spot on the hillside that wasn't buried in several inches of snow. Beside me my mom let her quicksilver fall off, and then groaned.  
  
*Damn. Can't believe I missed the energy sig on that.* She sounded angry at herself.  
  
*Power plant?* my dad asked, and my mom confirmed it.  
  
*They hid it well.* She glanced across the valley while making notes on the computer pad. *Those sheds are entrances, but for the guards, I think. Maybe living quarters, and kennels for the dogs. The main building is mostly residence, I'm betting. All the real power is underground.* She frowned. *I don't like this. What else could they be doing here?*  
  
*We'll find out once we're inside. You'll raid the computer, like always.* Dad sent to her. *Unless you want to try to get access now?*  
  
*Too risky.* She rolled onto her back and looked up at the sky. I wondered what she was doing. *Storm coming. Big one.*  
  
*Can we use it as cover?* my dad asked her.  
  
*Oh, yeah. Feels like a blizzard,* she answered. She quicksilvered and began to back out of the thicket. *I'll be right back.*  
  
As we watched, she made her way closer to the doorway. I don't know if it was luck or timing, but it suddenly opened. Several people came out of the doorway, walked down the hillside to one of the 'sheds' and went inside. Well, that seemed to confirm they were entrances to something else underground. Mom stood off to one side, watching the door I assumed. The door was huge, reminding me of NORAD, only on a much smaller scale. As it began to close, my mom tried to do something, I'm not sure what, but she got one heck of a surprise.  
  
*Ah, shit!* was shouted in my mind along with a burst of pain.  
  
*Alyx?* my dad's voice was filled with concern.  
  
*I'm okay. I think.* She didn't sound okay to me. She sounded singed.  
  
She made her way back to us without another comment, but instead of joining us she sent, *I have what I need. Let's get back.*  
  
Dad and I made our way out of the thicket and we retraced our path back to the tunnel. As soon as we were inside and safe, we all let the quicksilver flake away. Dad went to Mom, who had fallen to her knees.  
  
"What happened?" Dad asked her, kneeling next to her.  
  
"They know about us, about me. The electronics had a...I don't know...an energy field or something that bit me," she said.  
  
"Bit you?" Chris asked. "What do you mean?"  
  
She shook her head, as if trying to get rid of something. "I got in, was trying to track down the door trigger, when it bit me." She paused. "Gods, my head hurts."  
  
Chris pushed his way past Dad. "Let me see." He rested a hand on her forehead and she showed him. "Youch. It did bite you." He shook his head to try and get it out of his mind. "It must be designed to pick up outsiders trying to gain access, and sends a power surge to overload the intruder. Works fine for a computer. Hurts like hell for one of us."  
  
"Would it stop at the first source, or just keep passing through?" my mom asked, and I had no idea what she was talking about.  
  
Manda answered. "I've heard of these defensive systems. They're effective, but stupid. It will probably not jump systems. You thinking of accessing it through one of the hand comps?"  
  
Mom nodded. "But right now I'm going to collapse and let you guys trade information." She tossed her pad to Manda, who immediately went to work on checking the information we'd gathered.  
  
I couldn't decide whether to be excited or scared. Is this what I wanted to do with my life? Spend it sneaking into places on the say-so of some schmuck I probably wouldn't like? Risking my life for some reason I probably wouldn't understand? I always thought I would join the Agency, just like everyone else had, but now I wasn't so sure.  
  
I was going to have to take some time to actually think about this.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alyx lay sprawled on the rock floor with her head in Darien's lap as they went over what little information they had and attempted to come up with a plan that would have at least a chance of success. She kept glancing over at Ben, who was running his hands through his hair as if nervous.  
  
"You okay, Ben?"  
  
He lifted his head and looked at her, as if surprised that she'd noticed. "Good enough. I'm just not sure if I should come along on this."  
  
"You'll do fine, little brother," Rose said to him.  
  
Manda and Chris nodded in agreement.  
  
"Look at how much you've helped already," Darien said to him. "You'll do just fine."  
  
Ben shrugged, still a bit undecided about the whole thing.  
  
Alyx picked up on what was going through his mind, but kept her comments private with him. *Help us with this, and if you decide it's not what you want to do no one will force you into it. I promise.*  
  
He looked at her, knowing what a promise from her meant. *Thank you.*  
  
She nodded and lay her head back down. "Okay, my genius children, what have you got for me?"  
  
"We made contact with Piotr and he downloaded some new information to us. He's been busy, and worried. We assured him we were quite well," Rose began as she hooked up the computer pad to Jase's imaging machine again.  
  
"He also passed on an interesting message. Johnson asked him to refuse to assist us if we contacted him." Manda grinned. "He got the message two days after we left. As usual, Johnson has no idea what is going on."  
  
"He figured out enough to know we might call on Piotr for help," Darien pointed out. "Who knows what else he's figured out."  
  
Alyx groaned. "I just had a horrible thought. Could he have set us up?"  
  
Chris shook his head. "Not his style."  
  
Manda disagreed, however. "Johnson has been very unhappy that Mom keeps overriding his orders. This could be a way to get her tossed out and gain more control over the rest of us, including the I-Men."  
  
"Don't even think that. Johnson is a fool where we're concerned. The only one with a complete understanding of what we can do is Mom. Of course she overrides him. If she didn't, he'd have gotten me killed several times already," Rose added rather vehemently.  
  
"Sorry I brought it up. Back to the mission at hand, please," Alyx said loud enough to cut through the discussion. "We'll deal with boss Johnson later."  
  
"All right." Manda pulled up some information on the computer pad and displayed it. "Piotr's contacts managed to get some updated blueprints for the power plant, and we found the access tunnel. It leads to the fourth sub level of the lab. Dani is on sub level five, near as we can determine."  
  
"Once we go through the access tunnel, we can get into the ventilation system between levels. We thought this might be the best way to get to Dani and get back out." Rose added going to the image hanging in the air and pointing out the tentative route.  
  
"Our biggest concern is the security. It's fairly light at the power plant, but once in the lab it's the tightest we've ever seen," Chris added.  
  
"I've been thinking about that. What if we simply shut down power to the lab? I'm betting their back-ups are mainly for the computer system and maybe minimal security," Alyx said where she still lay with an arm flung over her eyes.  
  
"Just shut down power. You don't think small do you?" Darien said with a laugh.  
  
"Actually, it's what we were thinking. Back-up would go to essential systems and emergency lighting." Manda made some changes to show what she thought would happen if power were cut to the lab.  
  
"So we cut power, get Dani, get out, right?" Ben said, summing up the very basics of the plan.  
  
"Well, almost. I'm not leaving this place intact," Alyx growled.  
  
"Is that wise? We really don't want to create an incident," Darien said in response. He could tell her emotions were more than a bit involved in this matter.  
  
"Ummm. Actually Piotr has asked that we do exactly that. And it's not just him. The intel he sent us is scary." Manda had a touch of anger in her voice. "Grabbing Dani is just the latest of the genetic experiments that have come out of this place." Her voice trailed off as the anger increased, and she had to take several deep breaths to calm down.  
  
Alyx sat up. "What? What have they been doing?"  
  
"According to the data his mole sent him, they've been doing their version of the QSX project for about ten years, with limited success," Chris answered with disgust in his voice.  
  
Ben sat up straighter. This meant something to all of them.  
  
"They've created any number of failures. The mutation rate is horrible, and I'm not talking about animal experiments." Chris shook his head.  
  
"That's why they wanted Dani, or one of us anyway," Ben said with a look of horror.  
  
Chris and Manda nodded. "And I'm beginning to wonder why Johnson was so adamant that Dani be sent, even though Mom volunteered to go," Manda commented out loud.  
  
"Later," Alyx repeated, her voice tight. "Right now we have to rescue Dani and destroy this place."  
  
"How? It's not like we brought a supply of C-4 with us," Darien asked her seriously.  
  
"Oh, I have an idea," Alyx said with a nasty smile. "For now, let's figure out how to get in."  
  
  
  
Darien jerked awake when cold air washed across him. He realized Alyx was gone and sat up looking for her. Over near the door she shook off both the snow and the quicksilver that coated her. She was dressed all in black and did not have her heavy coat on, just a heavy black sweater, hat and gloves. "What have you been doing?" he asked her.  
  
"Scouting," she answered quietly as she moved to join him. "The weather is perfect, and I overheard some of the guards. They aren't going to be doing rounds outside tonight. They're expecting visibility to be nil."  
  
"No point in patrolling if they can't see," Darien commented in agreement.  
  
"Can't see? It's going to be white-out conditions. We may be the only ones with the ability to move out there." She sat beside him and he wrapped her coat about her. "Thanks."  
  
"I assume you'll be able to find the place by following the power?" She nodded and leaned back against him. "What about finding your way back here after?"  
  
"I thought about that. If we leave one of the comp pads here and active, I should be able to track it back to here," she said. Even with the quicksilver coating her, she'd gotten blinking cold out there. The temperature had dropped considerably, and the wind had picked up. Quicksilver may act as a thermal insulator, but it only went so far in temperatures this extreme.  
  
"This might work to our advantage. If they hunker down for the night, their response may be slow. They may even think that anything we do is side effect from the storm." He held her close, trying to warm her body. "How long?"  
  
"A few hours yet," Alyx answered. "They can sleep a bit more."  
  
"Then so can you," Darien said, pulling her down to lay beside him.  
  
"Yes, sir," she whispered. "I want this over."  
  
"So do I." He wrapped his arms about her. "Soon. It'll be over soon."  
  
  
  
"All right you mooks, everyone ready?" Alyx said with forced cheer at the group standing before her. They were all kit out in black with each of them carrying a variety of small tools or equipment. Alyx had the biggest pack, which included Jase's little image generator. Chris had some basic first aid gear, as well as the tranquilizer gun loaded with the drugs to, hopefully, counteract what Dani had been shot full of. They needed her conscious in order to get her out of there. Darien had his burglar tools with him. Manda and Rose each had several pieces of equipment that they habitually used when on a job. Ben was the only one who felt a bit left out in the gear department, but until he developed his own style, a computer pad for orientation would do for now.  
  
Weapons were the one thing they didn't have with them. They would get what weapons they'd need from the guards they encountered along the way.  
  
They had paired off for this little excursion: Darien with Ben, Manda with Rose, and Alyx with Chris. Those without quicksilver would be handled by those that could. Both Alyx and Rose could find the power sources, and contact would be maintained telepathically at all times. Hopefully no one would get separated in the weather, which, while bad now, was going to get lots worse before everything was said and done. One good thing about the snow: they would not have to worry about covering their tracks.  
  
Alyx pressed the release for the door and snow swirled in, along with a chill breeze. Letting the quicksilver flow over her and Chris, they walked out into the stormy night. Alyx had the majority of the route to the power plant entrance memorized and didn't really need to see it in order to find it. Darn good thing. Quicksilver sight was almost useless. There was not quite enough ambient light to see very well for most of them. Poor Ben, who was not used to this at all, felt almost blind, but Darien was able to lead him with little trouble.  
  
*This sucks,* Manda sent to everyone.  
  
*It's good cover,* Rose argued.  
  
*Agreed, but it still sucks,* Manda sent with a hint of humor.  
  
*Children,* Alyx admonished, even though she had found it amusing as well. She took her time and made sure to stick to the memorized pathway. The snow was already six inches deep, and getting deeper by the moment. It took only a few minutes longer than she planned but they made it to the entrance for the power plant.  
  
*Everybody here?* She queried as she tried to see the glowing outlines of her family.  
  
They mentally sounded off a roll call. Reassured, she turned to try and get them in the door without alerting the whole damn world. With a shiver she dropped the quicksilver on just herself and walked to the electronic lock beside the door. Darien moved next to Chris and took over the quicksilvering for him as planned. Pulling out the sacrificial computer pad, she jacked it into the access port on the lock and used it to try and find the code for the door. She felt the surge as it fried the poor thing and then inserted her mind into the system and searched for the access she needed. The lock was easy, and she was also able to disable the security cameras immediately inside the door.  
  
As the door creaked open, Rose and Manda rushed in while still invisible, intending to take out any human guards that might be there. After a moment Rose sent, *Clear.*  
  
Alyx quicksilvered and followed the others after they went in. She told the door to shut behind them. This was simply a hallway with an unmanned guard station that led to the elevator and stairwell that headed down to the power plant itself.  
  
*Can you shut it down from here?* Darien asked her.  
  
*No point. Wait till we're at the access tunnel.* She took over control of Chris again, and together they took point so that she could disrupt any security that might pick them up. As they walked she also kept a watch on the power systems, trying to find weak points.  
  
*Mom?* Ben sounded nervous.  
  
*Yes?*  
  
*Why are we using the stairs?* he asked her. He wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.  
  
*They might be suspicious if the elevator begins to move with no one here,* Manda answered.  
  
You could feel Ben mentally thwapping himself.  
  
*It's okay Ben. Always ask. It's the only way to learn,* Chris sent to him, easing his mind somewhat.  
  
As they moved lower, the power of the turbines could be felt through the metal floors. Alyx could feel the power as a deep singing through her very being. This was not the first time she'd had to deal with massive amounts of power, and she knew how to shunt the energy her body tried to tap into away from herself. To keep her focus away from the power, the energy that was trying to draw her to it.  
  
Rose was having problems. *Crap.* She was not yet used to her new abilities, and was having trouble concentrating on holding the quicksilver on herself and Manda. The energy was nearly overwhelming her senses. This was a complication no one had considered.  
  
Both Darien and Ben caught on first. Darien took Rose and Ben went to Manda, taking over control of the quicksilver for them.  
  
Alyx moved to Rose. *Damn. Relax for a moment.* Rose tried to argue, she was afraid of losing herself to the flow of energy. *Trust me,* Alyx sent to her. Altering the link so that it was now between only the two of them, she showed her daughter how to let the energy to just pass through. To be aware of it while also keeping from being lost to it. To keep that sense of self that was so important for people like themselves. *Don't fight it. Watch.* Alyx showed her how she'd managed to survive with that ability for all these years.  
  
It took a moment for Rose to catch on. It just didn't seem right that, instead of attempting to shield out the energy trying to force itself upon her, she needed to just let it pass through her and ignore it. *How have you managed all these years?* Rose sent once she caught the trick of it.  
  
*I had a choice?*  
  
Darien's mind voice broke in then. *Company.*  
  
They were deep enough into the power plant that there were some people around to make sure the systems worked correctly. It really annoyed them that, even though these people were just here to keep the system going, they were still armed. Only hand guns, but armed just the same.  
  
*Let's move, people,* Alyx sent to goose them back into movement.  
  
In minutes they had made it to the main floor of the power plant. There were a dozen giant turbines collecting power for the lab. Alyx made her way to a bank of computers used to monitor the system and began to call up information. She could shut down power to the lab fairly easily, but she wanted it to look natural, so she set up a rolling system failure which would trigger a complete shut down, diagnostic and then a restart for the system.  
  
*Why so much power for the Lab? What are they hiding in there?* Chris asked in combined curiosity and concern.  
  
*We'll find out.* Manda commented. *How long will it hold?*  
  
*Diagnostic is one hour. If we're still here then, we're guests of the Chinese government.* Alyx sent back.  
  
*We won't let that happen, will we?* Ben sent nervously.  
  
*No, we won't,* Darien commented. *Do it. Shut it down.*  
  
Alyx did so, and alarms began to go off in the form of flashing lights. Anything with sound would be unheard over the noise of the turbines in the room. Manda had Rose drop the quicksilver on her, then checked the computer pad. They had discovered you couldn't read them while quicksilvered. A pain in the ass, but one they were used to. A moment later she had Rose quicksilver her again and led the way to the access tunnel.  
  
*It looked bigger on the blueprints.* Darien's mind voice was filled with dismay. The access tunnel, which had appeared to be big enough to walk in, was in actuality only three to three and a half feet in diameter. Not even Alyx could stand up in the thing. On top of that, it was pitch dark.  
  
*Remember Nate Richards?* Alyx sent to Darien, reminding him of a similar situation they had dealt with in the past. The same incident that inspiried the "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" nicknames for each other. The access tunnel had been about the same size as this for that break in.  
  
*There are lights. Maybe we can selectively power them,* Rose sent, and Alyx agreed.  
  
*Rose, you take point. I'll take rear. Watch for cameras, but once we're far enough in we should be able to be visible for a bit.* Alyx tossed off the orders like she did it every day.  
  
*Watch for the ventilation access as well. We still need to get down one level,* Manda added.  
  
*Ben, contact Dani. Confirm her location. We need you to lead us to her,* Alyx sent to her still-frightened son.  
  
*Me?* he sent back at almost a squeak.  
  
Alyx tried to soothe him. *Yes, love. You can do it.*  
  
Unable to even mentally send an answer, he just sent a positive feeling and then worked on making a connection with his oldest sister.  
  
They continued into the access shaft, not moving as fast as they had hoped because of the size of it, but making decent time anyway. Once in deep enough, Alyx sent a signal and as one they allowed the quicksilver to flake away.  
  
*Mom. There's something up ahead,* Rose sent with some confusion in her voice.  
  
The others moved aside to allow Alyx to get up next to Rose. Once there, she was able to sense what Rose did. She held up her hand in front of her and there was a sudden energy discharge. Like a static spark, only a hundred times bigger, from her hand to the...whatever...across the tunnel.   
  
"Interesting." Alyx muttered. Then she simply reached out and touched it, sending a burst of energy back to the collar ringing the tunnel from where the energy field was emanating. With a shower of sparks, the thing shorted out. "Not very trusting, are they?" Alyx asked no one in particular. "Go ahead." She waved Rose on and then returned to her rear-guard position.  
  
They moved further down the tunnel with little trouble except for some grumblings of discomfort.  
  
*We may have a problem,* Ben suddenly sent.  
  
*What?* Darien asked him.  
  
*Dani is not below us. She's up one level.* He was sure of it.  
  
As Darien watched, they all got this faraway look in their eyes as they tried to track Dani.  
  
*I still get down,* Manda said. Chris agreed, but Rose was unsure. Alyx checked again, but this time she looked specifically for Dani's energy signature and found herself lost instead.  
  
*Mom?* Ben sent to her, which allowed her to refocus and find her way back.  
  
*One sec,* she muttered mentally. She tried again, and found herself caught in almost a net of energy. It was rather weak in some ways, but it was just enough that it would throw off their abilities. She tried to orient and found herself caught in it even deeper. It was like trying to move her mind through treacle.  
  
This time it was Darien who freed her with a barked, *Alyx!*  
  
"Crap. Ben's probably right. There's a diffusion field that effects our talents. It'll distort our orientation." Rose got this look in her eyes and Alyx whapped her, making her refocus on those in the tunnel. "Don't. If it trapped me..." She trailed off, and Rose swallowed hard and nodded.  
  
"So now what?" Chris asked.  
  
Alyx turned to her youngest son. "We follow Ben. Since it doesn't seem to affect his talent, he can lead us to her."  
  
Ben paled for an instant. He wanted no part of this resting on his way-too-untried shoulders. Then he looked at his family, sensing that they trusted in his ability even if he was still a bit unsure about it. He nodded.  
  
"Good. Rose, you and Ben take point. Watch for more security fields. Ben, find Dani for us." Alyx moved to the rear of the group again and checked behind them. People were taking notice that something odd was happening, but she could only check back towards the power plant. Any checking into the lab and she was struck by that odd field that disoriented her.  
  
"We'll fake it," Darien whispered to her. "It's not like we've never had to alter a plan before."  
  
"True, but what have they got in there that they need a field like that for? It only effects those with telepathic-type abilities." Alyx was more than a touch concerned. The field wasn't specifically for Dani. So what could be here that they were trying to keep in check?  
  
  
* 


	7. Chapter 7

*  
  
I thought I had been scared when I heard Dani had gone missing. That was nothing. Maybe it was just nervousness. First time out. Concern for more than just myself. Maybe all of it. I wasn't sure I was cut out for this line of work.  
  
This simple little rescue had turned out to be a lot more dangerous than anyone had expected when we first came up with this crazy idea, though Chris' talent hadn't kicked in to tell us we were in any unforeseen trouble. That intuition of his had saved many peoples' lives and several projects in the past. He could sometimes see a solution or a resolution with very limited information. His only commentary, so far, had been that I was needed for this rescue. Right now I was simply hoping to survive it and fearing that I wouldn't. Not that any of them would let me be hurt, but if we were all caught there wouldn't be much they could do.  
  
Trying to find Dani was turning out to be difficult because every time I 'tried' I lost her location. It was only when I concentrated on other things and let my talent guide me unconsciously that I 'knew' where she was. The other thing I noticed was that it was getting more and more difficult to keep in telepathic contact with everyone. It had to be that energy field Mom encountered. I could sort of feel it hovering over everything now that we had crossed into lab, and I could definitely feel the effects, like a buzzing in the back of my head that muted everything. It must be driving my mom and Rose nuts, but they kept going without a complaint. The goal was the important thing. Rescue Dani.  
  
Rose stopped in front of me. *End of the road. Security gate.*  
  
Her mind voice was muted, distorted, but we understood her.  
  
Mom crawled up next to us. *It should be the power distribution center.* She ran her hands over the metal of the door.  
  
*Problem?* my dad asked and she shook her head. She quicksilvered her hands and held them against the edge door. I watched the frost spread along the frame. With a snap, she shoved the door with her mind, breaking the now-brittle heavy-duty locks, and then caught the door before it fell to the floor with a clatter. She did something else, and I could hear popping sounds as the various security cameras and sensors overloaded. Climbing out, she waved for us to follow.  
  
She began to wander the room until she discovered the main distribution box. *I'm going to shut down that annoying field.* Her hand reached out to the breaker that would do exactly that, but Chris reached out and touched her arm.  
  
*Don't. It has to stay on.*  
  
Alyx looked at Chris searchingly, and after a moment nodded. *For now.* She began to flip other switches, shutting down other parts of the security system, leaving only the back-up power and the computer system up and running. *Ben, get us to Dani.*  
  
I looked at her, and then at the switches behind her, realizing she'd done more than just turn off a few systems. She'd fried the connectors so that it would take major repairs to get those systems running again. I turned away then and, pulling out my computer pad, I oriented and headed for the ventilation system. That would still be the easiest way to get to her. One thing I noticed before leading everyone away was that my mom's eyes had begun to glow. That only happened for two reasons: her body was trying process too much power, or she was angry. I had the feeling she was very, very angry.  
  
I found the vent shaft and she ripped the cover off with a thought, then stuck her head in to check the place out. Voices could be heard behind us, so she ordered us inside with a hand signal. We all quicksilvered, just in case, and as I watched so did she. However, instead of following us, she went after the voices, which were most unhappy at having been dragged down here this late a night.  
  
I heard a couple of thuds, and then there was silence. Mom came back a few moments later and shook off her quicksilver. She was carrying a couple of guns. She handed one to Rose and kept the other for herself. I shook off my quicksilver and led the way, trying not to think about the fact my mom was now carrying a gun like it was a part of her.  
  
I wasn't an idiot. I knew my mom was quite skilled with a variety of weapons, but actually seeing her with one made it that much more real. Or maybe that would be surreal. To me that wasn't my mom, or at least not my internal perception of my mom. My mom wouldn't have any idea how to hold a gun, much less fire one. No matter how many times I told myself that wasn't true, that my mom was perfectly capable of killing when necessity required it, it just didn't seem like the person I knew, the one who raised me, the one who taught me right from wrong.  
  
That person seemed so very far away at the moment.  
  
We ended up at a four way junction with the choices being back the way we'd come, up, down, or straight ahead. We needed to go up.  
  
"Mom?"  
  
She shushed me. *Voices will carry. I'll lift you to the next level.*  
  
Nodding, I stepped out over the open shaft and felt myself lifted straight up. It was about fifteen feet but I was able to grasp the edge of the new tunnel and sent. *I'm there. Need to cross the shaft.*  
  
*Gotcha. Rose is on her way up.* And moments later Rose appeared and I helped her into the slightly smaller shaft. It wasn't long before everyone but my mom had crowded in. A weird thing about my mom was that she rarely used her abilities on herself. We had never figured out if she couldn't or if she simply didn't want to. She had to physically climb the shaft to get to us, with her back pressed against one side and her feet on the other. She inched her way up until Dad was able to help her into the side shaft we were waiting in. She lay on her back for a few minutes to catch her breath. Lifting all of us and then climbing was work, and she needed a moment to recharge.  
  
*Are we above or below the level?* she asked as she lay with her eyes closed.  
  
*Above,* Manda answered after checking the computer pad.  
  
*Good. Ben, find her.* Her mind voice was even more distorted now, as if that field was focused on this level. As I moved down the shaft, I could hear my dad whispering to her. They must be having trouble communicating with him because of the distortion field. I knew I was having trouble doing more than sensing his presence. I really didn't like this. It would be too easy to lose each other in here if we couldn't keep in contact. If we got separated...I didn't want to go there.  
  
Soon we started encountering vents that looked into rooms or hallways. Thankfully this shaft was mounted in the wall and not hanging freely in the air. We were moving as quietly as possible, but still making a lot of noise as the metal shifted and popped. Most of the rooms appeared to be basic labs. Nothing fancy, nothing dangerous. A few offices, and then we began to encounter rooms. Rooms designed for occupants. Some unwilling occupants. We were close.  
  
I stopped. *Mom, here. Dani's here.*  
  
She crawled forward and looked in the vent to see Dani curled up and a bed. *Dani, wake up.*  
  
She tried several more times with no success. *She's drugged. Hand me the gun, Chris.*  
  
The dart gun was passed along until I could place it in her hand. She did something, perhaps checking for surveillance in the room and then pushed out the vent, twisted it, and drew it into the shaft with us. Then she aimed and fired the gun and an instant later the dart appeared sticking out of Dani's thigh. *Dani, come on.*  
  
This time there was a groggy response. *Mom?*  
  
*Yes, sweets we're here. Cover yourself up; I need to make the vent hole a bit larger to fit you in.* We didn't need her to tell us; we all moved back to give her enough room. She just blasted, a controlled blast, but blasted the shaft and the wall away, leaving a hole more than big enough for Dani to climb through. Dani may still have been feeling the effects of the drugs, but she didn't hesitate. As soon as the way was clear she was climbing into the shaft to join us.  
  
The door to her room opened and she let fly with a telekinetic blast that threw the three men that entered back into the wall, knocking them unconscious.  
  
*Let's go,* she sent to all of us.  
  
I'd never really noticed before how much like Mom Dani looks. Right now, though, she both looked and felt just like her. Dani was very angry. Up ahead, my mom chuckled and then spoke aloud.  
  
"I know, and you will get your chance." She was talking to Dani, obviously, and I could only imagine what Dani had said to her.  
  
When Mom moved forward instead of backtracking us, I wondered about it, but Manda asked about it first. *Ummm, wrong way?*  
  
*No. We have followers in the shafts. We'll go to the next cross shaft and head back down.* My mom sent to us all.  
  
Followers! They knew we were here. This was not good, even if it was, at least partially, expected.  
  
I wanted this done. I wanted to go home.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
As they crawled through the shaft, looking for a place to get off of this sub level, Alyx would glance into the rooms they passed. If there was an occupant she would force the door open, giving the trapped people a chance to escape what she knew was coming. When she grew tired, Dani took over. As they made their way deeper into the complex that field that affected their telepathic and energy abilities kept getting stronger. Eventually Alyx had to stop; her head was spinning and she was having difficulty orienting, never mind trying to communicate.  
  
"What the hell is that?" she complained. It left her other abilities mostly unaffected, but she was becoming unwilling to use them for fear of losing control.  
  
Rose was looking a bit green herself. "I don't know, but I don't like it."  
  
Darien was the only one unaffected. "Guess it's good to be normal on occasion."  
  
"Normal, huh? Gland man," Manda commented with a chuckle.  
  
"We need to keep moving," Chris said. Darien nodded and took the lead. Rose and Alyx were in the middle, since they were the most affected. Ben brought up the rear. He was jumpy and nervous. A good thing at this point.  
  
Darien swore. Up ahead the shaft suddenly dead ended. It was obvious that at one time it had continued, but had been altered for some reason. "Crap. Now what?"  
  
Alyx shook her head and then began to search. She found a sealed over vent and, considering their situation, ripped the damn thing off and looked inside. At first she was confused, but then she realized there was another cover, this one even more solid. She tried to probe beyond, but could not get far with the field. "Manda, what's in there?"  
  
Manda closed her eyes to concentrate. "Someone. Alone." She shook her head. "That's all. That field is a pain in the ass."  
  
"Vote time. Back and hope we avoid our followers, or through this way and hope we're not screwing ourselves?" Alyx asked them all. This time she needed input.  
  
"Go through," both Ben and Chris said at the same time.  
  
Darien raised his eyebrows. "Talent attack?"  
  
They nodded.  
  
"Girls?" Alyx asked.  
  
Dani spoke for all of them. "Get us the hell out of here."  
  
"All right. Back off a bit then." She didn't wait more than an instant before simply blasting her way into the room. When the dust settled, she got a look at the space and found it huge. It must have penetrated down to the next sub level easily. Wires and power boxes lined the walls and it only took a moment for all of them to figure out this was the source of the diffusion field and that Alyx had just made a hole in it with her blasting.  
  
*Who are you?* The voice boomed in her mind and she threw herself backwards, smashing into the far wall of the shaft with enough force to see stars.  
  
She didn't notice, she was grabbing at her head and screaming for the presence to get out of her mind.  
  
"What the hell?" Darien moved to her side, trying to support her and grabbed her wrists to keep her from tearing her eyes out of her head. He wasn't sure what was going on, but whatever it was it was causing her a lot of pain.  
  
Both Dani and Manda attacked. Dani just simply shoved at the one person in the room while Manda let fly with a fireball the size of her head. Neither hit its mark, but they weren't sure why.  
  
Alyx was still screaming "Get out!" over and over. The presence in her mind was so strong, so overwhelming, that her efforts to keep it out, to keep it from going through every experience in her mind, were less than ineffectual. It was the proverbial butterfly wings against a hurricane. And she was the strongest among them.  
  
Ben watched his mother writhing in his dad's hold, unable to really comprehend what was happening. It was obvious she was under attack, but by what? The field was no stronger -- in fact, because of her blasting the hole in the wall, they were in a relatively quiet place where the effect was greatly diminished.  
  
Manda and Dani continued to try and attack until they suddenly grabbed their heads in pain. Whatever it was that had Alyx in its inexorable grip mentally spanked them. Chris had moved over to Alyx and Darien trying to help control her.  
  
Rose looked to Ben. "What is it?"  
  
He shook his head. "I'll find out." He looked out into the room and saw a young child sitting on a platform hanging in the center of the room. He decided to try something, perhaps he was being foolish, but he had to try.  
  
*You're killing her. Stop, please,* he sent to the child in the room.  
  
It turned to look at him and Ben had to hold himself in place. The child's eyes were blood red orbs with no visible pupil. To say it was freaky did not adequately describe Ben's feelings on the matter.  
  
*Who are you?* it said into his mind, nearly causing him to go into the same reaction Alyx had. It hurt, but he had the oddest feeling that it wasn't intentional. More like the child did not realize how much harm he was causing by simply speaking to them.  
  
*Ben,* he sent to the child, keeping his mind voice calm and steady. *Benjamin Fawkes. Can we help you?* He wasn't sure why he asked that, considering it felt like his mind was being shredded by the child's presence in it.  
  
Alyx felt the intrusion on her mind ease, the presence suddenly realizing that he was causing far more harm than he intended. She shook her head and relaxed in Darien's hold.  
  
"Alyx?" he asked her, feeling somewhat reluctant to release her hands.  
  
"I...I'm okay. We have to help him." Alyx looked at her husband and then at Chris. "He's why you wanted us to go through, why you didn't want me to take down the field."  
  
Chris' lips tightened, but he nodded. When his intuition kicked in, not even he really understood it. All he knew was that if he followed it, the results would ultimately be positive. If he didn't, the results tended to be bad, very bad. "Who... What is he?"  
  
Alyx sat up, finally feeling strong enough to do so. "He's what they made him." She pulled out the hand gun she'd appropriated and checked to make sure it was loaded and working properly. "And he's only a child."  
  
Alyx moved to sit next to Ben, who was still talking to the young child sitting before him. He saw the gun in her hand and feared the worst.  
  
"Mom, no!" Ben shouted as she began to fire, but instead of hitting the child she fired at the power boxes lining the room.  
  
Rose caught on after a moment and joined her, until the clips in both guns were empty.  
  
*You are not from here?* the voice echoed through all of their minds, but this time it was quieter. No longer shouting, overpowering their minds with his voice.  
  
*No,* Manda sent. *We came for one of our own.*  
  
*They are coming. I will help if you can shut down the rest of this diffusion field which traps me,* he sent to them.  
  
*Done.* Alyx sent to the child. Leaning out through the hole in the wall she set her hands on the webbing of power lines that lined the room. It was ingenious, really. They had created an energy field that kept this child's mind trapped in this room, preventing him from influencing those outside of it. They had played god once too often, and Alyx was going to make sure these people never had the chance to do it again. She sent a burst of energy into the system lining the room and shorted it out; one power box after another exploded into sparks. With every explosion they could feel the effects of the field lessening until, with the last few, it dissipated completely.  
  
Alarms began to go off. Alarms that had been tied exclusively into this system.  
  
*Go. They will not harm you. Those that can be allowed to leave will find their way out.* He looked directly at Alyx and somehow she knew he could see her even with those eerie eyes of his.  
  
*Can we...* she began, but he interrupted her.  
  
*No, and you realize this. I am too dangerous.*  
  
Alyx wanted to protest, wanted to help him, wanted to give him the chance she had be given.  
  
*Go. Do what is needed, as I will.* He turned away from them and refused any more contact.  
  
"Go." Darien said, giving Manda a shove to get her moving. "Break through the first vent you find and get us out of here."  
  
Everyone did as he said except Alyx, who still watched the young boy sitting in the room.  
  
"Alyx?" Darien rested a hand on her shoulder. "We have to go."  
  
She nodded, but before she turned away she sent one last message to the small but powerful figure in the room. *I will remember.*  
  
She allowed Darien to urge her away and they followed the kids to the first potential exit. They still had to get out of here.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
After they had left, the small child looked over to where she had been. When he'd been in her mind he'd been surprised to discover that she was like him, and even more surprised that they all were like him. He was pleased to know he was not alone. He only wished he'd had more of a chance to know her, to know them. He'd done the only thing he could. Guarding their backs while they escaped and destroyed this place. He smiled slightly, something he rarely did. Not even she truly knew what she was, what she was capable of, but he knew. One day she would discover the gift he had given to her. One day she would discover the truth. That day would change her life forever.  
  
Again.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
They smashed their way out of the next room they found and began to make their way through the lab. It was amazing how few people they saw. Most must be in bed for the night, but still, they had expected the Lab to be reasonably staffed even at this late hour. Alyx accessed the system at the first computer station they found that was connected to the mainframe. She made short work of the system by triggering its auto destruct programming, which would fry every bit of information on every computer connected to the mainframe. Manda tried to lead them up, but both Alyx and Dani said 'no,' though for different reasons. Dani explained that the main building was essentially a front. It had the vehicles for those who worked here, mostly trucks and heavy-duty jeeps. Also a couple of helicopters, or at least there had been when she was captured. But it had another purpose as well. It was a trap designed to capture anyone trying to break in, including those with their skills.  
  
Alyx needed to get back to the power plant. She was going to make sure nothing remained here to be salvaged. The child was as good as his word; they encountered no resistance. The few people they did meet were gone. She touched one of them and found that his mind had been taken over by the young boy in that room.  
  
There had been a time she had hated the world for what had been done to her, hated the Agency for forcing her to use those abilities, hated those she worked with for forcing her to care again. Now she just wished she could save one child from the horror that had been done to him.  
  
When they reached the power plant, she made the rest of them go on ahead. She wanted them out of the way when this place came down. Darien stayed with her, refusing to allow her to do this alone.  
  
Alyx turned to her kids. "Ben, Rose, get them back to the tunnel."  
  
They shook their heads. "How?"  
  
"Rose, I left that comp pad active for this reason. You'll be able to sense it. Ben, let your talent lead you," Alyx said to them. "It'll be bad out, so make use of the quicksilver."  
  
"Mom..." Ben sounded frightened.  
  
"We'll be along. I promise." That was all they needed to hear.  
  
Dani took over the group. "We'll contact you when we're clear." Then she got them moving out of the power plant.  
  
When they were gone, up the elevator -- there was no one to hide from now -- Darien asked, "So now what?"  
  
Alyx waved at the row of turbines before them. "All this power. Shame to let it go to waste."  
  
Darien looked rather shocked. "I'm going to repeat myself: You are insane. Completely. Insane."  
  
Alyx laughed and turned to him. He didn't hesitate and wrapped his arms about her as she leaned against him. "You should go. This is dangerous."  
  
"No. If you run into trouble, you'll need me to get you out. You already have a headache," he said, resting his chin on the top of her head. "This might push you over the edge."  
  
"True." She turned about and looked at the turbines. "I'm going to overload the system, as well as make sure the river is released. If this works the way I think it should, this entire valley will become a lake."  
  
He held her a bit tighter. He could feel her anger and frustration radiating from her. He felt the same, and was more than willing to let her vent that anger by destroying this place. If she could sow the ground with salt, he'd gleefully help her.  
  
"Do what you need to do."  
  
Alyx closed her eyes and concentrated. She began with the turbine furthest from her. Within moments it had began to whine with an ear piercing tone. She then moved to the next one. As they neared the peak, and just before they would overload and tear themselves apart, she held them. Kept them from taking that last step to complete destruction.  
  
"Go," she said. "We need to get clear."  
  
They ran to the elevator that he had already called back down for them. When they were on the way up, he asked her, "How long can you hold it?"  
  
"Till we're clear," Alyx said, already finding holding the coming explosion back difficult. They made their way out the door and into the storm.  
  
*We're clear.* Dani's voice said in her mind.  
  
Alyx was unable to quicksilver, as her concentration was taken up with other things, so Darien did the both of them and simply led them uphill, not worried about finding the tunnel entrance at this point. They just needed to be out of range.  
  
Alyx sent a blank query into the lab and made contact with the child still there.  
  
*Those that were deserving are safe,* he sent to her.  
  
*And you?* She just couldn't leave him there. She wanted to save him if she could.  
  
*You have saved me. Now go, before you too are trapped.* A wave of peace washed over from him. With what she was about to do, she was going to set him free.  
  
She couldn't deny him that.  
  
"Hold on," she said to Darien, sending the same warning mentally to everyone else. Then she released her hold on the turbines.  
  
For a long moment, nothing happened. Then the ground shuddered. A deep rumbling that could be felt as much as heard vibrated through the mountainside.  
  
"Ah, crap," Darien said as he began to pull Alyx higher up the hillside. Alyx redirected him, aiming him in the direction of the tunnel and the only hope of safety in this valley. Behind them, water exploded out of the entrance to the power plant with a roar. Secondary explosions began to go off, causing the entire bowl of the valley to shake and knocking both Alyx and Darien to the ground.  
  
Darien dropped the quicksilver and they rolled over to watch the show. Even through the near white-out conditions, the explosions were impressive. Flashes of blue, like giant sparks jumping into the air, some fire and flames, and lots of water. With one last immense explosion, the entire Lab installation collapsed upon itself and vanished both into the mountain and into the rising water.  
  
Alyx and Darien both got sprayed with water that was flung into the air as they lay in the snow, rather astonished at the amount of destruction they had caused. Though they did have a tendency to do exactly that; it wasn't the first building they had blown up, and somehow they knew it wouldn't be the last.  
  
Alyx probed at the wreckage with her mind, part of her hoping the child had survived, perhaps to be rescued, but she got nothing. She changed her focus to her own children, starting with Ben.  
  
*Ben? You guys all right?*  
  
*Mom!* he all but shouted into her mind.  
  
Alyx put her hand to her forehead and laughed. *Easy. Report please.*  
  
*We're fine. Some dust shook loose. Manda and Rose are checking further in to make sure the way is clear, but everything seems to be fine.* Ben sent with a confidence he hadn't been feeling for most of this adventure.  
  
*You guys need help?* Chris broke in.  
  
*No. We'll be there in a few.* Alyx assured them and then broke contact.  
  
Alyx wrapped her arms about herself. As Darien would say, 'it was fricking cold out here.' She got to her feet a bit shakily. She was quite tired, and her head hurt to the point that it was a strain to stay conscious. Once again she had pushed herself beyond what she could normally do.  
  
"We done here? Can we go home?" Darien asked as he wrapped his arms about her. "I'm tired of being cold."  
  
With a laugh Alyx quicksilvered.  
  
"Damn. Okay, some things are colder than a blizzard." But he also quicksilvered, and together they made their way to the tunnel where their family awaited.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
We stayed put for a while to recover. Dani was still dealing with side effects of the drugs, and Mom...well, Mom had overdone it as usual and collapsed shortly after making it back to the tunnel. Instead of trying to move them, Manda and Rose went back to the monastery to get a few items we could use and we set up a temporary camp right there. Once the storm was over, we each got a chance to look at Mom's handiwork.  
  
There was nothing left. A lake had replaced the valley. The water sat higher than the doorway to the power plant, and I found it oddly peaceful considering the amount of pain and destruction that had gone into its creation.  
  
My mom stood there for long time, just looking over the water. I knew she was thinking about that child, that child who had been anything but a child, thanks to what they had done to him. I wasn't sure why it was affecting her so much, but I was afraid to ask. Even I knew there were times our thoughts were better kept private, and I was pretty sure my mom needed to keep these to herself.  
  
Maybe she'd talk to Dad about it. Maybe not. By the time we were ready to leave, to head back to the monastery, I think she had found some sort of peace, or maybe an answer. Something she could live with anyway.  
  
We contacted Piotr from the monastery and told him of the destruction, and of how helicopters from the Chinese government had flown over the former valley for a day and a half. We weren't sure what it meant, but we made sure Piotr knew about it as a precaution. Because of the risks we had taken, he took one of his own and sent a rather large and heavily armed helicopter to retrieve us which, thankfully, my parents accepted gratefully. So, instead of hiking through snow-covered woods for three days to get back, we were flown there in a matter of hours.  
  
We spent a week in a guest house of Piotr's while we finished recovering and told him everything. And I do mean everything. Apparently, although he'd known there was something different about my mom, he'd never known the whole truth about what she could do. Until now.  
  
I could see in her eyes that she was afraid he was going to reject her. Instead he pledged his loyalty and his family's to her and her family for as long as both existed. Stunned, she did the only thing she could. She thanked him and pledged the same. Might be a good thing. Bethany, who is about my age, is awfully cute, and we decided to remain in contact with each other. If nothing else, I've learned that contacts in high places can have their uses.  
  
Mom seemed in no hurry to get back to the States, back home. She spent a lot of time on the computer or on the secure phone in Piotr's office. When I asked her about it, she just said she was tying up a few loose ends and no more.  
  
I wanted to worry, but no one would let me. They told me that, on this occasion, Mom needed to do this herself. So I tried to stay out of the way and let her get it done. I had fun. In some ways it felt like my last chance at just being a kid. Oh, I had to practice, to make sure my new skills were working, to refine my control, but I'd done that most of my life anyway. It was part of who I was. Being able to have a snowball fight with both my family and a passel of royals, well, that was the epitome of being a kid and it wasn't something I was ready to lose just yet.  
  
I knew we'd be leaving soon when my mom joined us in the granddaddy of all snowball fights. By the end it had devolved into a contest to see who could hit her with a snowball. Between her powers and her natural reflexes, it was nearly impossible.  
  
In the end it took a concerted attack by all of us that simply overwhelmed her defenses. In one instant, one moment of pure clarity, I realized that someday this was what would happen to her. One day she would be brought down, just as we had done to her, and there was nothing I could do to prevent it. The only thing I could hope to do was delay it.  
  
I looked at her, and she still did not look old. Maybe she never would to me, but all it took was to see her eyes and you could tell that she had seen far more than she ever needed or wanted to. Even with all the knowledge, all the pain, all the joy, all the horror that I knew she had dealt with, she could still smile. I hoped that I would be able to face the world in the same way when I reached her age.  
  
You know, somewhere along the way, after we found that child, that poor creature that was trapped in that room with nothing but a mind that was far beyond even what my family considered normal, somewhere in there, I lost my fear. I found myself and what I wanted to do. Maybe it wasn't what had been planned, or thought I might do, but I had decided.  
  
I'd let them know in a few years. I still wanted some time to really grow up. In my family, even with all our responsibilities, being a kid is still fun. And I was planning on enjoying it to the fullest.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alyx stood in front of the three man review committee, her hands clasped behind her back. They kept offering her a chair, a drink, anything to get her to relax her stance. Nothing was going as she had planned, had arranged while still at Piotr's. All those phone calls and secure computer communications had been for naught. Instead of being called first and taking the blame for the whole scheme, from the gland stealing, to using her connection with Piotr for personal reasons, to all but creating an international incident with the Chinese government, she'd been forced to wait while committee called dozens of people in before her. Everyone, including all her kids (excepting the twins), Darien, even Bobby and Claire. Johnson had even gotten a chance to speak to the committee before her, and she had a good idea what he'd said. Their feelings about each other, both personal and professional, were well known, as well as the reasons why.  
  
So instead of sitting, she stood before the committee, waiting for them to rip into her and then fire her, perhaps even throw her in jail to await extradition to China, though that last wasn't very likely.  
  
"Miss Silver," the gentleman in the center said to her.  
  
The woman to his right leaned over and whispered, "Mrs. Fawkes."  
  
The gentleman turned to the woman and Alyx decided to forestall the argument. "Either will do."  
  
He turned and glared at her. "Miss Silver, I would be very careful today if I were you. You are on very shaky ground."  
  
Alyx shrugged. "Do what your going to do."  
  
He seemed a bit taken aback by her careless attitude. "You do realize how much trouble you are in?"  
  
Alyx nodded. "And?"  
  
The woman elbowed him, and whatever he was going to say was swallowed. "Mrs. Fawkes, you are aware that you destroyed a multi-billion dollar power plant and power research facility in China? And that you could be held liable by both the Chinese and US governments for the damage?"  
  
"Of course." Alyx resisted the temptation to laugh at the description of the lab. Power research, indeed.  
  
"That you could be tried by the UN council for what could be considered an act of war?" the third gentleman asked.  
  
"Look, I know all this. I knew all this going in. Just get to the point, would you?" Alyx had no need for this long, drawn-out build-up to the climax. Whatever they were going to do was already decided. She'd known that the moment she walked into the room, and that was without even peeking in their minds. After all these years she could read posture and subtle signals that the person didn't even realize they were sending.  
  
"All right. We had planned to turn you over to the Chinese government for punishment, but they have declined to press any charges." The woman spoke in a flat tone, but it was obvious she really wanted to know how Alyx had managed to get out of it.  
  
"What did you blackmail them with?" the gentleman in the center asked.  
  
"Let's just say they discovered that prosecuting me would reveal more information than they want the public at large to know about," Alyx replied truthfully. If anyone tried to prosecute her on the matter, she would make sure the world knew exactly what was going on in that Lab.  
  
They nodded, knowing better than to ask exactly what it was she knew. Sometimes you just didn't want, or need, to know.  
  
"Now, as to your status with the Agency," the woman began. "We have interviewed quite a few of your co-workers, as well as Mr. Johnson, your superior. Without exception, they all consider you pushy, overbearing, disrespectful of your superiors, opinionated, and trouble on two feet. However, with the exception of Mr. Johnson, they also find you highly skilled in all facets of your work, highly intelligent and focused, an efficient leader, and an excellent judge of abilities and capabilities." She tipped her head to look at Alyx, who was doing her best to control her reactions.  
  
"And all of them," the gentleman to the left continued. "Most especially those designated I-Men, would gladly follow you into any situation, knowing that you would use them to the best of their abilities and yours." He smiled at her. "There are not many men who would follow a man, much less a woman, into some of the situations you have been in. All six of the current I-Men stated for the record that they would gladly work with you." He picked up a sheet of paper and read from it. "'She has an incredible sense of self-sacrifice, to the point that she'll protect one of us over herself. She is the first person to take a bullet for me, and she shouldn't have needed to, but, by doing so, she gave me a chance to improve my skills. One day I hope to be worthy of her respect.'"  
  
Alyx knew who had written that and recalled the incident that it involved. That bullet wound had been no more than a scratch, and it had been the fellow's first assignment as an I-Man. Of course she wasn't going to let him be hurt. She'd only done what made sense at the time. The kid was just being a bit overzealous in his praise of her.  
  
"We thought he might be exaggerating, but they all had the highest praise for your skills and abilities." The woman said. "We are suitably impressed."  
  
"Johnson, however, has a completely different opinion of you," the gentleman in the center stated.  
  
"Johnson is a fool. No one since Charlie Borden has had the faintest idea of how to handle the special talents of those at the Agency." She waved her hand to forestall any comments. "Even the 'normal' agents have to be specially trained to work with the others. Between the regular I-Men and the QSX agents, it is a unique work environment that requires a completely different management style. Johnson has treated us as tools, with no regard to our individual talents and personalities."  
  
Alyx wound down. She'd kept her voice even and calm. Amazing really, considering exactly how much she didn't like her boss.  
  
"You are correct, and Johnson has been removed with prejudice," the woman said to her.  
  
Alyx sighed. Great, now another bozo who would be unhappy at being stuck at the backwater Agency would come in and try to screw things up yet again. To most, the Agency was the last stop before complete obscurity. Only Charlie Borden, and for a very short time Luke Lawson, had seen the true potential and value of the Agency. All the rest had been fools, not looking beyond doing that one impressive thing that would get them out before the rest of the world forgot their names.  
  
"Who is his replacement?" Alyx said, with little hope in her voice.  
  
"Actually, we were hoping you'd take the job."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
When Mom showed up back at the house, we all cheered. We'd known what was coming, had done our damnedest to set it up and run roughshod over all her plans. They, we, wanted her in charge. She was the only one who really understood what the Agency had become and what we could really do. And after nearly twenty-five years working for them, she deserved some sort of recognition. There was no way we were going to let her get fired over rescuing Dani, especially after discovering Johnson had been working with the Chinese to get them information. Dani had, indeed, been set up.  
  
When Dani confronted him on the matter, he'd admitted his involvement after she had threatened to rummage through his mind while he was stuck to the ceiling. Seems he has this slight problem with heights. That had been after he'd testified before the committee about Mom, so we knew he had ripped into her. Not that it mattered. We could be very persuasive, even without using our powers to influence people.  
  
Mom looked flabbergasted. I don't think the reality had set in, or maybe she'd turned down the offer. Dani made sure to find out.  
  
"So, did you take the job or not?"  
  
"You knew. You set me up," Mom said as she walked down into the yard.  
  
"You bet we did, kid. You should have been in charge a decade ago," Bobby said as he walked over to her. "Congrats." He gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.  
  
"And what if I say I didn't take the job? That I chose to retire..." She didn't get to finish, as the majority of us burst out laughing.  
  
"Right, Mom, the day you retire is the day the sun runs out of energy," Rose said to her, still laughing.  
  
"Not fair. I hate being set up," Mom grumbled. I watched my dad as he walked over to her. It had taken all of us hours to convince him this was the right thing to do. For all of us. I mean, we all knew she planned to work with him when she left the Agency, so we knew she was not about to really retire. To rest and relax. She'd be bored inside of two days with nothing to do, nothing to plan, nothing that needed her attention. Even the twins were far more self-sufficient than she liked to admit. In the end, though, he agreed it was probably for the best, given that most of the family was working for the Agency.  
  
He looked down at her with a smile. "So, what did you decide?"  
  
Mom sighed. "I took the job."  
  
Everyone cheered.  
  
She waved them to silence. "There will be a few changes, though."  
  
There were groans from all those who had dealt with the previous changes.  
  
"Like what?" Manda asked with a look of dismay.  
  
"How about full funding for a start?" Mom said with a hint of a smile.  
  
"Full... How the hell did you manage that?" Bobby asked, sounding impressed.  
  
Mom shrugged, grinning. "I have my ways."  
  
That she did.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
A month ago, it was my birthday, and I thought I knew exactly what I was going to do with my life. I had made some choices and decisions that now seem so foolish, so short sighted, that I'm not sure what drove me to make them. I had thought that my thirteenth birthday was the start of my real life.  
  
Boy, was I wrong.  
  
I may not know exactly what I'm going to do with my life, but I do know that I'm going to make sure to enjoy it. At least I'm not going to have to spend time wondering who I am or where I belong. I'm already there, with friends and family for whom I don't have to pretend to be something I'm not.  
  
And in the end, that's all that really matters.  
  
  
  
Finis  
  
  
* 


End file.
